Military planes roared overhead. Thousands of troops goose-stepped behind the old hammer-and-sickle flag. There, at Red Square, President George W. Bush took it all in.

Back in the U.S.S.R., a glum Bush watched the Russian military display to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II. During his historic trip to Russia and several Baltic states once in the Soviet sphere, Bush was uncompromising in his defense of liberty.

It was one of those moments that made me proud to be an American — and mine is a citizenship by choice. For Bush reminded everyone during his stops from Latvia to Georgia that the defeat of Nazi Germany freed Western Europe but brought the enslavement of Eastern Europe under Soviet occupiers for decades.

The wink-and-nod appeasement of Vladimir Putin’s autocratic and increasingly undemocratic rule in Russia that Bush seemed to embrace post 9-11 no longer stands true. Not that Bush wants to rile Putin to the point of confrontation. But if he once saw into Putin’s soul, as a palsy-walsy Bush claimed during the Russian leader’s visit to the president’s Texas ranch, Bush now seems to have done some soul-searching of his own.

For his part, the former KGB boss who now heads Russia went on the offensive, questioning Bush’s criticism of Putin’s backtracking on democracy by pointing out on the CBS show “60 Minutes Sunday” that Bush’s first election was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

True, but it was no coup. Our court system remains independent of the presidency and Congress. Besides, Bush won his second term fair and square. I may not like his going too far to the right on a host of issues, but that doesn’t mean the president shouldn’t be praised when he upholds true democratic reforms.

Putin’s backsliding on democracy — including ending democratic elections for Russia’s 89 governors in favor of presidential appointments and increasing state control of news media — should worry Europe and all people who support democratic means of self-determination. Certainly the United States needs Russia as an ally to fight terrorism. And the United States hopes to secure oil in a trans-Georgia pipeline that circumvents Russia and Iran.

It’s a delicate balancing act, and both leaders need to do more. There’s that pesky question of thousands of nuclear weapons and tons of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium in Putin’s control that need to be better guarded. The United States has its own nuclear anti-proliferation commitments that Bush seems to want to side step, too.

Nevertheless, sometimes you just have to call a spade a spade. The Bush administration is right to point to Belarus, still struggling to free itself of Putin-backed hard-liner Alexander Lukashenko, as “the last remaining dictatorship in Europe.”

From Russia’s Red Square to Georgia’s Freedom Square, Bush gave voice to millions who, after decades of oppression, deserve to determine their own democratic destiny.

Myriam Marquez is an editorial page columnist for the Orlando Sentinel. Her e-mail address is mmarquez@orlandosentinel.com.