President George W Bush is meeting Baltic leaders in Latvia at the start of a tour marking the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe.The visit comes amid a dispute between the Baltic states and Russia over the Soviet Union's annexation of the three independent countries after the war.
The Baltics want Russia to apologise, but Moscow has refused.
Russia has protested against Mr Bush's visit there ahead of his trip to Moscow to attend major WWII commemorations.
Of the three Batic countries, Latvia alone will be taking part in Moscow's ceremonies.
Estonia and Lithuania are staying away.
Minority issues
Russia sees itself as the main power which helped bring freedom to Europe, defeating the Nazis at an enormous human cost - 30m Soviet lives were lost.
But the Baltic countries see the Soviet Union as an aggressor.
The Estonians and Lithuanians say their liberation from the Nazis marked the start of Soviet occupation.
All three countries, which are now members of Nato and the European Union, want Russia to apologise for their annexation by the Soviet Union in 1940 - a move which Washington supports.
It's important to respect democracy, but also the respect of democracy is respect for minority rights
President Bush
Tough diplomatic test
The rift between them and Russia deepened further on Thursday, when President Vladimir Putin said Russia did not need to apologise again.
In an interview with German television, Mr Putin said that the Soviet-era authorities had issued a resolution in 1989 criticising the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which handed the previously independent Baltic states to the USSR.
The resolution said it was "a personal decision by (Soviet leader Josef) Stalin that contradicted the interests of the Soviet people".
"I want to repeat: We already did it," Mr Putin said. "What, we have to do this every day, every year?"
Mr Bush has said that when he and Mr Putin meet he will remind his Russian counterpart that for Baltic states the defeat of the Nazis did not herald freedom.
But he also said he would remind the Baltic state leaders of the main Russian grievances regarding the alleged mistreatment of Russian minorities in the Baltics.
"It's important to respect democracy, but also the respect of democracy is respect for minority rights," Mr Bush told Russian television NTV on Friday.
The Russian president says some states are making an issue of the post-war settlement for their own domestic purposes.
From Russia, Mr Bush will fly to Georgia, where he will become the country's highest profile visitor since its non-violent Rose Revolution in 2003, which brought President Mikhail Saakashvili to power.
Correspondents say the Georgia visit is happening against a backdrop of worsening relations between Tbilisi and Moscow - which has opposed Mr Bush's visit.
The BBC's James Coomarasamy, who is travelling with Mr Bush, says the president will use the location to reflect on one of his central themes, the onward march of freedom.
It will be an uncomfortable time for Mr Putin, who is facing growing US criticism for his attitude to democracy, our correspondent says.