May Day in a changing world

An elderly Russian Communist Party activist takes part in the traditional May Day rally in front of the Bolshoi Theatre in central Moscow Thursday.

By Nikos Konstandaras

Like glaciers melting after ages of stability, the global political system is undergoing great change. Alliances are loosened or reinforced, old enmities are revived and the whole system of global governance is being tested. It is impossible to predict where this will lead.

On Thursday, there was a major May Day rally by workers in Moscow’s Red Square – the first since 1991 and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Many of the banners did not express the demands and wishes of Russian workers, instead they praised President Vladimir Putin for his dynamic intervention in Ukraine’s domestic affairs and for the annexation of Crimea. On May 9, a major military parade in Red Square will commemorate the day in which the Allies defeated Nazi Germany. The revival of this Soviet tradition was Putin’s project. More recently, Russia adopted laws which make it easier to annex parts of countries that were in the Soviet Union; they also allow citizens of such territories to gain Russian citizenship. It is clear that Russia is on an irredentist march.

Putin is unfazed by the economic sanctions announced by the United States and the European Union, and it is clear that he will continue to challenge the US. It cannot be a coincidence that on Thursday China’s Defense Ministry announced a joint naval excercise with Russia in the East China Sea later this month. On his recent visit to the area, US President Barack Obama made clear his country’s support for Japan in its dispute with China over a group of uninhabited islets which Japan controls. Russia, on its part, is involved in a...