MOSCOW — This weekend marked the first time in five years a Baltic head of state attended the annual May 9 celebration in Russia of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in WWII.

Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves and Latvian President Valdis Zatlers were both invited by the Russian government to attend, and got to watch one of the largest military parades in Red Square since the fall of the U.S.S.R. For the first time troops from four NATO countries — the U.S., U.K., France and Poland — participated in the parade.

Despite her overtures to the country’s eastern neighbors, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė was not invited.