MOSCOW (AP) – Pyotr Komarov came to Red Square hoping to march in the parade honoring the Red Army’s victory over the Nazis 60 years ago. But he and many other veterans could not get past the heavy security.

“I didn’t need an invitation to go to the front!” he said.

Veterans joined leaders from around the globe in honoring the victors and victims of World War II, paying particular tribute to the Soviet Union’s massive sacrifice, as guests of President Vladimir Putin.

The lavish Red Square military parade marking the 60th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat brought together leaders of lands that faced off on battlefields of the war – or across bitter Cold War barriers in the decades that followed.

But while President Bush, French President Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and others watched the festivities from a podium in front of Lenin’s tomb, some veterans said they felt pushed to the side by the ceremony and pomp.

“Putin stole our victory!” said Maya Sergeyeva, 79, a wartime nurse who was among some 5,000 protesters who gathered under hammer-and-sickle flags at an opposition rally.

“They are letting all these people in who don’t have any medals, while we – war participants – have to stand here,” said 80-year-old veteran Nina Lopasova, 80.

Nevertheless, Putin evoked the unity that brought victory and stressed the Soviet Union’s outsize role during a parade redolent with imagery from the communist era.

“I bow low before all veterans of the Great Patriotic War,” Putin said, using the term widely employed in the former Soviet Union to describe the war that raged over its western lands for years after the Nazi invasion of 1941, killing tens of millions of people. He described May 9, 1945 – marked in Russia as Victory Day – as “a day of victory of good over evil, freedom over tyranny.”

Beneath overcast skies, the parade began with four goose-stepping soldiers in ceremonial gold-embroidered uniforms carrying a red flag with a hammer and sickle – a replica of the banner flown from the top of the Reichstag in Berlin after the building was seized by Soviet troops a week before the Nazi surrender. Veterans adorned with gleaming medals rode green military trucks.

Soldiers in modern and war-era uniforms – infantrymen with red flags topped by Soviet insignia, tank troops with black padded helmets – marched in tight formation, the slap of their boots echoing across the cobblestones. Fighter jets streamed smoke in the Russian flag’s white, blue and red colors above the square after Putin’s speech.

While Russians have often complained that the Soviets’ wartime role is underrated in the West, Putin said that “we have never divided the victory between ours and theirs, and we will always remember the help of the Allies,” listing the United States, Britain, France and those who fought fascism in Germany and Italy.

“Today we pay tribute to the courage of all Europeans who countered Nazism,” Putin said.

However, he added, “the most cruel and decisive events unfolded on the territory of the Soviet Union.” Listing battles such as Stalingrad, Kursk and the siege of Leningrad – where he was born in 1952 – Putin said that “the Red Army put a victorious end to the war with the liberation of Europe and the battle for Berlin.”

Recent public bickering over the Soviets’ postwar domination of eastern Europe and Western allegations of democratic backsliding in Russia was put aside for the celebration.

Putin and Bush smiled when the American president arrived for the parade. When Bush lowered his umbrella, despite the rain, to allow photographs, Putin laughed and did the same. The Russian leader reserved the seat next to him for Bush, calling him a guest of “special importance.”

After the parade, Bush walked next to Putin as the international leaders strolled to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and laid red carnations alongside a carpet of red roses spread in honor of those killed in World War II. They stood silently before an eternal flame at the tomb close to the red brick Kremlin wall before heading inside for a reception.

Speaking at the reception, Putin drew a parallel between Word War II and today’s threats from extremism and terrorism. “We must strengthen our cooperation in the fight against this evil,” he said.

He also said victory over the Nazis brought “the right to freedom, to life itself, to an independent choice of a path of development” – the kind of remark bitterly disputed in the Baltic states, which were annexed by the Soviet Union and gained independence only with its breakup in 1991.

The leaders of two Baltic nations, Estonia and Lithuania, stayed away, angered by Putin’s portrayal of the Soviet Union as a liberator despite decades of occupation. Bush balanced his Moscow visit with a trip to Latvia, another Baltic nation, and flew Monday to Georgia, a former Soviet state where a new pro-Western leadership is seeking to shed Russian influence.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair was also absent. Blair said he couldn’t attend because he was forming a new government following parliamentary elections last week.

After the reception, Putin and other VIPs gathered in Red Square for a concert that started with the tolling of the Kremlin bells and a moment of silence.

Security has been a concern in the capital because of attacks by Chechen separatists over the past three years, so central Moscow was closed to the public. Russians were urged to gather in homes or parks to mark the holiday.

Still, hundreds of communists and leftists rallied in a square north of the Kremlin, railing against the strictly controlled, lavish celebrations and demanding they be allowed to march to Red Square.

“This is the day to commemorate veterans and to glorify the country we used to live in and not spend it with high-powered official guests from other countries,” said one man who gave only his first name, Alexei.