The traditional image of May Day in Moscow has faded. Tanks and trucks bearing missiles no longer trundle through Red Square to show to the world and to the Russian people the military might at the disposal of the Kremlin. That might was intended to instil pride into Russians and fear into the West, and most especially, to let NATO know it had a formidable potential foe.
For most of the time since the Soviet Union was dismantled in 1992, May Day took on a different aspect. It became a public holiday in the sense known in the rest of the world. No enemy appeared to lurk in the West. The NATO action in Serbia and Western criticism of Russia's war in Chechnya, have changed attitudes and in last year's events a touch of the old anti-Western bitterness returned.
The first May Day of the new millennium, however, may see the anti-Western trend, if not reversed, at least ignored. A Russian opinion poll, for example, has revealed that the Orthodox Easter Sunday celebrations, which took place yesterday, now take a more important place in the Russian psyche than May Day.
Overshadowing both in many minds is the marking, on May 9th, of Victory Day in the Second World War - a conflict in which 26 million Soviet citizens lost their lives. The Cold War which followed is also officially over but it has recently had its echoes on the Republican side of the US election campaign.
With the chaos and indecision of the Yeltsin administration at an end, President-elect Putin has moved towards the high moral ground in the area of nuclear non-proliferation. START-2 has been ratified and radical plans have been proposed for START-3. The US wishes to build a "National Missile Defense" (NMD) to protect itself against attack by "rogue states." Russia, with some justification, argues that this is in flagrant breach of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty (ABM).
Compromise on the numbers of missiles to be demolished in START-3 could lead to compromise on the modification of ABM. This would allow the US, without alienating Russia, to construct a missile shield against attack from countries such as North Korea which, in any event, have yet to demonstrate their ability to deliver warheads at medium to long range.
Some in the Republican Party want to go ahead with NMD regardless of the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty. Senator Jesse Helms, the defiant cold-warrior who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has gone so far as to warn Russia that a Republican administration could renege on any deal done with President Clinton.
Mr Putin has shown remarkable flexibility in befriending Britain's Prime Minister, Mr Blair, who, just a year earlier, had been painted by the Kremlin as the "chief warmonger" of NATO's Yugoslav campaign. The humiliation of Russia involved in Mr Helms's proposals would be quite a different matter. There are those marching in Moscow today who would welcome a return to the Cold War. It is important that the US does not play into their hands.