Russia–NATO relations#Founding Act on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security

Following the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany which dissolved the Allied Control Council and the Council of Foreign Ministers, NATO and the Soviet Union began to engage in talks on several levels, including a continued push for arms control treaties such as the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. There were also conversations regarding the NATO's role in the changing security landscape in Europe, with U.S. President George H.W. Bush, U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, West German chancellor Helmut Kohl, West German foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, and Douglas Hurd, the British foreign minister. The West German foreign minister, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, in a meeting on February 6, 1990, suggested the alliance should issue a public statement saying that, "NATO does not intend to expand its territory to the East."{{Cite journal |last=Sarotte |first=Mary Elise |date=2014 |title=A Broken Promise? What the West Really Told Moscow About NATO Expansion |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24483307 |journal=Foreign Affairs |volume=93 |issue=5 |pages=90–97 |jstor=24483307 |issn=0015-7120}} In 1990–91, Western policy makers did indeed operate on a premise that NATO had no purpose in expanding to Eastern Europe, and that such a move would badly hurt long-term prospects for stability and security in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.Goldgeier J, Shifrinson JRI. Evaluating NATO enlargement: Scholarly debates, policy implications, and roads not taken Evaluating NATO Enlargement: From Cold War Victory to the Russia-Ukraine War: Springer International Publishing; 2023. p. 1-42 doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-23364-7_1. According to several news reports and memoirs of politicians, in 1990, during negotiations about German reunification, the administration of then-US President George H.W. Bush made a ‘categorical assurance’ to the then-President of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev: If Gorbachev agreed that a reunified Germany was part of NATO, then NATO would not enlarge further east to incorporate the Warsaw Pact countries in the alliance. The rationale was to allow for ‘a non-aligned buffer zone’ between the Soviet border and that of the NATO states.{{cite journal |last1=Zollmann |first1=Florian |title=A war foretold: How Western mainstream news media omitted NATO eastward expansion as a contributing factor to Russia's 2022 invasion of the Ukraine |journal=Media, War & Conflict |date=30 December 2023 |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=373–392 |doi=10.1177/17506352231216908 |language=en |issn=1750-6352|doi-access=free }}{{Creative Commons text attribution notice|cc=by4|from this source=yes}} After the fall of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, Gorbachev denied those claims and stated that the promise from NATO not to enlarge eastward is a myth. He also said, "The decision for the U.S. and its allies to expand NATO into the east was decisively made in 1993. I called this a big mistake from the very beginning. It was definitely a violation of the spirit of the statements and assurances made to us in 1990."{{cite web |last1=Korshunov |first1=Maxim |title=Mikhail Gorbachev: I am against all walls |url=https://www.rbth.com/international/2014/10/16/mikhail_gorbachev_i_am_against_all_walls_40673.html |website=rbth.com |date=16 October 2014 |access-date=12 May 2024}} In 1992, i.e. only a few months after the USSR disintegrated, the US openly expressed intention to invite former Warsaw Pact countries into NATO.Goldgeier J, Shifrinson JRI. Evaluating NATO enlargement: From cold war victory to the Russia-Ukraine war: Springer International Publishing; 2023. 1-645 p doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-23364-7.

File:Russia-NATO permanent mission logo.png

Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze made a first visit to NATO Headquarters on 19 December 1989, followed by informal talks in 1990 between NATO and Soviet military leaders.{{Cite web|url=http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/declassified_136603.htm|title=Old adversaries become new partners|website=NATO}} In June 1990 the Message from Turnberry, often described as "the first step in the evolution of [modern] NATO-Russia relations", laid the foundation for future peace and cooperation.{{Cite journal|last=Iulian|first=Raluca Iulia|journal=Cbu International Conference Proceedings |title=A Quarter Century of Nato-Russia Relations|date=2017-08-23|url=https://ojs.journals.cz/index.php/CBUIC/article/view/998|language=en|volume=5|pages=633–638|doi=10.12955/cbup.v5.998|issn=1805-9961|doi-access=free}} The following month, NATO Secretary General, Manfred Wörner, visited Moscow in July 1990 to discuss future cooperation.{{Cite web|url=http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/declassified_136599.htm|title=First NATO Secretary General in Russia|website=NATO}} In November 1990, the Soviet Union and the western countries signed the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe.

Immediately after the signing of the Agreement establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States on 8 December 1991, Russian President Yeltsin called U.S. President George H. W. Bush and specifically read him Article 6 of the Agreement. "First of all, I talked with USSR Minister of Defense Shaposhnikov. I want to read the 6th Article of the Agreement. As a matter of fact Shaposhnikov fully agreed and supported our position. I am now reading Article 6." ... "Please note well the next paragraph, Mr. President (and I urge the interpreter to translate this precisely)." ... "Dear George, I am finished. This is extremely, extremely important. Because of the tradition between us, I couldn't even wait ten minutes to call you."{{Cite web|url=https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/27272-document-9-memorandum-telephone-conversation-bush-yeltsin-december-8-1991|title=Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, Bush-Yeltsin, December 8, 1991 | National Security Archive|website=nsarchive.gwu.edu}}{{Relevance inline|date=January 2025|reason=No secondary sources on article subject}}

According to the text of Article 6, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus form a “common military and strategic space” and “united armed forces.”

{{Cite web | url=https://www.venice.coe.int/webforms/documents/?pdf=CDL(1994)054-e | title=Agreements establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States | website=www.venice.coe.int}}{{Cite web|url=https://cis.minsk.by/reestrv2/doc/1#text|title=Единый реестр правовых актов и других документов Содружества Независимых Государств|website=cis.minsk.by}}{{Relevance inline|date=January 2025|reason=No secondary sources on article subject}}

On 21 December 1991 Boris Yeltsin, President of Russia, sent a letter to NATO asking it to consider accepting Russia as a member of the alliance sometime in the future. In the letter to NATO, Yeltsin stated, “This would contribute to an atmosphere of mutual understanding and trust and would strengthen stability and cooperation on the European continent. We regard this relationship as serious and wish to develop this dialog on all fronts, both on the political and military levels. Today we raise the issue of Russia's membership in NATO, however, we see this as a long-term political goal.”{{Cite web|url=https://www.interfax.ru/30years/800490#comment804216|title=СССР прекратил существование, 11 республик вступают в СНГ}}{{Primary source inline|date=January 2025|reason=No analysis of this "fact" from the secondary sources}}

The Collective Security Treaty within the framework of the Commonwealth of Independent States was signed On 15 May 1992.{{Cite web|url=https://cis.minsk.by/reestrv2/doc/79#documentCard|title=Единый реестр правовых актов и других документов Содружества Независимых Государств|website=cis.minsk.by}} (A separate organization outside the CIS framework called Collective Security Treaty Organization was created in 2002).{{Relevance inline|date=January 2025|reason=No secondary sources on article subject}}

Formal contacts and cooperation between the newly founded Russian Federation and NATO began following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, within the framework of the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (later renamed Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council), and were further deepened as Russia joined the Partnership for Peace program on 22 June 1994.{{cite web |url=http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/topics_50090.htm |title=NATO's Relations With Russia|date=6 April 2017 |publisher=NATO Public Diplomacy Division, Belgium |access-date=26 May 2017}}{{cite web |url=http://www.nato.int/nato_static/assets/pdf/pdf_publications/20120214_strategic-concept-2010-eng.pdf|title=NATO Strategic Concept for the Defence and Security of the Members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization|date=20 November 2010 |publisher=NATO Public Diplomacy Division, Belgium |access-date=26 May 2017}}{{cite web |url=http://www.bits.de/NRANEU/relations.htm |title=The NATO-Russia Archive - Formal NATO-Russia Relations |publisher=Berlin Information-Center For Translantic Security (BITS), Germany |access-date=22 April 2016}}{{cite web |url=http://www.nato.int/pfp/sig-date.htm |title=NATO PfP Signatures by Date |publisher=NATO Public Diplomacy Division, Belgium |date=10 January 2012 |access-date=22 April 2016}}

On 14 January 1994, Russian President Boris Yeltsin said at a meeting with his American counterpart Bill Clinton in Novo-Ogaryovo.

"Russia has to be the first country to join NATO. Then the others from Central and Eastern Europe can come in. There should be a kind of cartel of the U.S., Russia, and the Europeans to help ensure and improve world security." "In truth, Russia is not yet ready to join NATO. Russia firsts needs to start thinking about reactions in other areas. There is a potential Chinese reaction. As a result, without cooperation between the two of us it is hard to envisage continuation of a peaceful and stable world. If we continue to work together as you suggest, we can do much to ensure peace and stability for Europe and for the rest of the world."{{Cite web|url=https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/30920-document-8-cable-us-embassy-moscow-state-department-presidents-dinner-president|title=Cable from U.S. Embassy Moscow to State Department, "President's Dinner with President Yeltsin," [January 13], Novo-Ogarevo, January 14, 1994 | National Security Archive|website=nsarchive.gwu.edu}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.bfm.ru/news/542897|title=Рассекреченная стенограмма: Ельцин попросил, чтобы Россия первой присоединилась к НАТО, раз альянс расширяется на восток|website=BFM.ru - деловой портал}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.rbc.ru/politics/26/01/2024/65b31bcc9a7947b8bad62e39|title=Ельцин заявлял Клинтону, что Россия "должна первой вступить в НАТО"|date=26 January 2024|website=РБК}}{{Unreliable source?|date=January 2025|reason=Russian state-controlled sources are not reliable}}{{Primary source inline|date=January 2025|reason=No analysis of this "fact" from the secondary sources}}

In September 1994, Boris Yeltsin addressed the UN General Assembly and mentioned the role of the CSCE in the European security system. Russia had previously proposed the idea of increasing the role of the CSCE to the detriment of NATO. Yeltsin's national security aide Yuri Baturin noted that after the end of the Cold War, ‘the time of NATO has passed,’ and therefore the alliance ‘should change its mechanisms and goals taking into account Russia's military and political weight.’ Baturin believes that ‘a new mechanism of European security could be born from the combination of the CSCE and NATO, where the CSCE bodies would represent the political and diplomatic part, and NATO bodies would represent the military part.’ But Yeltsin himself did not make such a statement.{{Cite web|url=https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/90894|title=Выступление президента России в ООН|date=28 September 1994|website=www.kommersant.ru}}{{Primary source inline|date=January 2025|reason=No analysis of this "fact" from the secondary sources}}

Russian President Yeltsin had thought that the Partnership for Peace would be an alternative to NATO membership rather than a path to it, and after it was announced in December 1994 by NATO that this is not the case, he began to oppose NATO expansion into Eastern Europe. Yeltsin adopted opposition to NATO expansion as official policy in 1995. However, he continued efforts to cooperate with NATO, including signing of the NATO–Russia Founding Act in 1997.{{Cite web |last=Kozyrev |first=Andrei |author-link=Andrei Kozyrev |year=2019 |title=Russia and NATO Enlargement: An Insider's Account |url=https://transatlanticrelations.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/19-Kozyrev.pdf }}

{{further|Budapest Memorandum}}

In the same year, the Budapest Memorandum was signed where Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States made security assurances to Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, in return for handing over by these three countries of their post-Soviet nuclear arsenal. {{Citation needed|date=June 2023}}

{{See also|1st Separate Airborne Brigade}}

File:Russian paratroopers at Tuzla Air Base.jpg, 6 March 1997]]

In late 1995 the U.S. and Russia reached an agreement for the Russian military to participate in the Implementation Force, the NATO peacekeeping mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina tasked with ensuring the implementation of the Dayton Agreement that ended the Bosnian War.{{Cite news |last=Whitney |first=Craig R. |date=9 November 1995 |title=Russia Agrees To Put Troops Under U.S., Not NATO |newspaper=New York Times |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150526142718/https://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/09/world/russia-agrees-to-put-troops-under-us-not-nato.html |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/09/world/russia-agrees-to-put-troops-under-us-not-nato.html |archive-date=26 May 2015}} On 15 October 1995, a Russian General Staff delegation arrived at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in Mons, Belgium, and made the command and control arrangements for the deployment of Russian troops. A Russian general and his staff were appointed to SHAPE, with the general being given the position of Deputy to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) for Russian Forces. A brigade of the Russian Airborne Forces was put together for the mission and was under the tactical control of Multi-National Division (North), led by a U.S. general, and under the operational command of SACEUR through his Deputy for Russian Forces.{{Cite web |last=Jones |first=James L. |author-link=James L. Jones |title=Peacekeeping: Achievements and Next Steps |date=3 July 2003 |url=https://www.nato.int/docu/speech/2003/s030703a.htm |work=NATO }}{{Cite web |title=Lessons and Conclusions on the Execution of IFOR Operations and Prospects for a Future Combined Security System: The Peace and Stability of Europe after IFOR |work=Foreign Military Studies Office |url=https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA434985.pdf |date=November 2000 |page=4 }} It was the first time the Russian military participated in a NATO operation and the first joint military operation between Russia and the countries of NATO since World War II.{{Cite web |last=Shevtsov |first=Leonty |title=Russian Participation in Bosnia-Herzegovina |url=https://csdr.org/97Book/shevtsov-C.htm |date=21 June 1997 }}

The Russian involvement in Bosnia and the presence of a Russian military staff at NATO's headquarters was praised by both sides as a success, and General George Joulwan, the NATO supreme commander at the time, said that this contributed to the signing of the NATO-Russia Founding Act the following year.{{Cite web |last=Joulwan |first=George |title=The New NATO: The Way Ahead |url=https://www.csdr.org/97Book/joulwan-C.htm |date=21 June 1997 |quote=I firmly believe that our cooperation at SHAPE and in Bosnia was instrumental in the creation of the NATO-Russia Founding Act, which was signed in May 1997 in Paris. As NATO's Deputy Secretary General said, 'Political reality is finally catching up with the progress you at SHAPE had already made.' }}

On 27 May 1997, at the NATO Summit in Paris, France, NATO and Russia signed the Founding Act on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security, a road map for would-be NATO-Russia cooperation.Ronald D. Azmus, Opening NATO's Door (2002) p. 210.Strobe Talbott, The Russia Hand: A Memoir of Presidential Diplomacy (2002) p. 246.Fergus Carr and Paul Flenley, "NATO and the Russian Federation in the new Europe: the Founding Act on Mutual Relations." Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics 15.2 (1999): 88–110. The act had 5 main sections, outlining the principles of the relationship, the range of issues NATO and Russia would discuss, the military dimensions of the relationship, and the mechanisms to foster greater military-military cooperation.

File:У. Коэн и И. Сергеев подписывают план сотрудничества в штаб-квартире НАТО. Брюссель, 3 декабря 1997 г..jpg and William Cohen signing a cooperation agreement at NATO HQ, 1997]]

Additionally, the act established a forum called the "NATO-Russia Permanent Joint Council" (NRPJC) as a venue for consultations, cooperation and consensus building.{{Cite web |title=5/15/97 Fact Sheet: NATO-Russia Founding Act |url=https://1997-2001.state.gov/regions/eur/fs_nato_whitehouse.html |access-date=2022-05-31 |website=1997-2001.state.gov}} As part of the efforts of the PJC, the NATO-Russia Glossary of Contemporary Political and Military Terms was created in 2001.{{Cite web |title=NATO Publications |url=https://www.nato.int/docu/glossary/eng/ |access-date=2022-05-28 |website=www.nato.int}} The glossary was the first of several such publications on topics such as missile defense, demilitarization, and countering illicit drugs to encourage transparency in NATO-Russia Relations, foster mutual understanding, and facilitate communication between NATO and Russia contingents.{{Cite web |title=Nato-Russia Council - Documents & Glossaries |url=https://www.nato.int/nrc-website/en/documents-glossaries/index.html |access-date=2022-05-28 |website=www.nato.int}}

The Glossary of Contemporary Political and Military Terms was especially timely given the NATO and Russia cooperative efforts in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo.{{Cite web |last=The NATO-Russia Joint Editorial Working Group |date=June 8, 2021 |title=NATO-Russia Glossary of Contemporary Political and Military Terms |url=https://www.nato.int/docu/glossary/eng/15-main.pdf}}

In 1999, Russia condemned the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia,{{cite news |title=Yeltsin: Russia will not use force against Nato |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/mar/25/russia |work=The Guardian |date=25 March 1999}}{{cite news |title=Yeltsin warns of possible world war over Kosovo |url=http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9904/09/kosovo.diplomacy.02/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020107075834/http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9904/09/kosovo.diplomacy.02/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=7 January 2002 |work=CNN |date=9 April 1999}} which was done without a prior authorization by the United Nations Security Council, required by the international law.Goldgeier J, Shifrinson JRI. Evaluating NATO enlargement: From cold war victory to the Russia-Ukraine war: Springer International Publishing; 2023. 1-645 p doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-23364-7. p.165. For many in Moscow, a combination of NATO’s incorporation of Eastern Europe and its military attack on sovereign Yugoslavia exposed American promises of Russia’s inclusion into a new European security architecture as a deceit. Yeltsin’s critics said: ‘Belgrade today, Moscow tomorrow!’

Russian President Boris Yeltsin said that NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia "has trampled upon the foundations of international law and the United Nations charter."{{cite news |title=Russia Condemns NATO's Airstrikes |url=https://apnews.com/article/8d162f6100f23833c376f011a9298126 |work=Associated Press |date=8 June 1999}} The Kosovo War ended on 11 June 1999, and a joint NATO-Russian peacekeeping force was to be installed in Kosovo. Russia had expected to receive a peacekeeping sector independent of NATO, and was angered when this was refused. There was concern that a separate Russian sector might lead to a partition of Kosovo between a Serb-controlled north and Albanian south.{{cite book |title=Soldier |first=Mike |last=Jackson |publisher=Transworld Publishers |date=2007 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/soldierautobiogr00jack/page/216 |pages=216–254 |chapter=Back to the Balkans |isbn=9780593059074 |url=https://archive.org/details/soldierautobiogr00jack/mode/2up}} From 12 to 26 June 1999, there was a brief but tense stand-off between NATO and the Russian Kosovo Force in which Russian troops occupied the Pristina International Airport.{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/671495.stm |title=Confrontation over Pristina airport |date=9 March 2000 |publisher=BBC News}}{{cite news |url=http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/singer-james-blunt-prevented-world-war-3-refused-us-order-to-attack-russian-troops-15004204.html|title=Singer James Blunt 'prevented World War 3'|last=Peck|first=Tom|date=15 November 2010|work=Belfast Telegraph}}

On 5 March 2000 in response to a question about his attitude towards NATO, Mr Putin also said he could envisage a closer relationship between Russian and the alliance. "We believe we can talk about more profound integration with NATO, but only if Russia is regarded as an equal partner," he said. Asked if Russia might ever join NATO, he replied: "I do not see why not." Mr Putin said attempts to exclude Russia from the debate over NATO's eastward expansion had led Moscow to oppose any such moves. When asked if he saw NATO as a potential partner, a rival or an enemy Mr Putin replied that the very question could "cause damage" and would "not do any good to Russia or the world".{{Cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20001208050400/http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_666000/666501.stm |archive-date=8 December 2000 |title=Chechen resistance broken, says Putin |url=http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_666000/666501.stm |website=BBC News |date=5 March 2000}}{{Cite web |last=Stephen |first=Mulvey |date=5 March 2000 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20001208051500/http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_666000/666768.stm |archive-date=8 December 2000 |title=Analysis: Putin wants respect |url=http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_666000/666768.stm |website=BBC News}}{{Cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041126012223/http://www.bbc.co.uk/russian/0305_1.shtml |title=Почему бы и нет? |date=5 March 2000 |website=BBC Russian |archive-date=26 November 2004 |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/russian/0305_1.shtml}}{{Primary source inline|date=January 2025|reason=Needs analysis from secondary sources}}

In 2001, following the September 11 attacks against the United States, Russian President Vladimir Putin reached out to President George W. Bush, the President of the United States at the time. This was the height of U.S.-Russian relations since the end of the Cold War. Russia even shared intelligence that they had with the United States, which proved vital to the U.S. forces in Afghanistan.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}} As a member of NATO, the United States' newly positive relationship with Russia would positively impact Russian-NATO relations.{{Cite journal |last=Hall |first=Todd |date=September 2012 |title=Sympathetic States: Explaining the Russian and Chinese Responses September 11 |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/j.1538-165X.2012.tb00731.x |journal=Political Science Quarterly |language=en |volume=127 |issue=3 |pages=369–400 |doi=10.1002/j.1538-165X.2012.tb00731.x|url-access=subscription }}

A drastic reversal in the US and NATO policy toward Russia occurred in December 2001. Most importantly, the US unilaterally withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia in 2001–2002, which was followed by the US signing bilateral agreements with Poland and Romania (with NATO support) to build ballistic missile defense (BMD) systems in their territories, against Russian wishes. Although none of these events depended on NATO enlargement - not even the agreement to build BMD sites in Romania and Poland, given that the United States also has bilateral BMD equipment arrangements with a wide variety of non-NATO members (including Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United Arab Emirates) - this withdrawal was interpreted by the Russian political elite, and by many Western political scientists, as US exploitation of political and military weakness in Russia at the time, and led to the loss of Russia's trust in America's political intentions.

File:Vladimir Putin 28 May 2002-17 (cropped).jpg, NATO Secretary-General George Robertson and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi at the Russia-NATO Summit at Pratica di Mare Air Base in Italy on 28 May 2002]]

The NATO-Russia Council (NRC) was created on 28 May 2002 during the 2002 NATO Summit in Rome. The NRC was designed to replace the PJC as the official diplomatic tool for handling security issues and joint projects between NATO and Russia. The structure of the NRC provided that the individual member states and Russia were each equal partners and would meet in areas of common interest, instead of the bilateral format (NATO + 1) established under the PJC.{{Cite web |title=Nato-Russia Council - About |url=https://www.nato.int/nrc-website/en/about/index.html |access-date=2022-05-31 |website=www.nato.int}} There was no provision granting NATO or Russia any veto powers over the actions of the other. NATO said it had no plans to station nuclear weapons in the new member states or send in new permanent military forces. The parties stated they did not see each other as adversaries, and, "based on an enduring political commitment undertaken at the highest political level, will build together a lasting and inclusive peace in the Euro-Atlantic area on the principles of democracy and cooperative security".{{cite web |url=http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/official_texts_25468.htm |title=NATO - Official text: Founding Act on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security between NATO and the Russian Federation signed in Paris, France, 27-May.-1997|author=NATO|work=NATO|access-date=22 April 2016}}

Cooperation between Russia and NATO focused on several main sectors: terrorism, military cooperation, Afghanistan (including transportation by Russia of non-military International Security Assistance Force freight (see NATO logistics in the Afghan War), and fighting local drug production), industrial cooperation, and weapons non-proliferation.{{cite web |url=http://www.militarytimes.com/articles/nato-the-worlds-biggest-military-alliance-explained |title=NATO: The World's Largest Military Alliance Explained |date=25 May 2017 |website=www.MilitaryTimes.com |publisher=The Associated Press, US

|first1=Lorne |last1=Cook |access-date=26 May 2017}} As a result of its structured working groups across a range of areas, the NRC served as the primary forum for consensus-building, cooperation, and consultation on topics such as terrorism, proliferation, peacekeeping, airspace management, and missile defense.{{Cite web |title=Structure of the NATO-Russia Council |url=https://www.nato.int/nrc-website/media/65228/nrc_structure-external.pdf |access-date=May 30, 2022}}

"Joint decisions and actions", taken under NATO-Russia Council agreements, include:

• Fighting terrorism{{Cite web|url=http://www.nato-russia-council.info/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090208075115/http://nato-russia-council.info/htm/EN/documents28jul08.shtml|title=Nato Blog | Dating Council|archive-date=8 February 2009|website=www.nato-russia-council.info}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.nato-russia-council.info/|title=Nat-o Blog | Dating Council|website=www.nato-russia-council.info}}
• Military cooperation (joint military exercises{{Cite web|url=http://www.nato-russia-council.info/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090208075051/http://nato-russia-council.info/htm/EN/documents13jun08.shtml|title=Nato Blog | Dating Council|archive-date=8 February 2009|website=www.nato-russia-council.info}} and personnel training{{Cite web |url=http://www.nato-russia-council.info/HTM/EN/news_14.shtml |title=Allies and Russia attend U.S. Nuclear Weapons Accident Exercise |access-date=3 December 2008 |archive-date=28 August 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828234226/http://www.nato-russia-council.info/htm/EN/news_14.shtml |url-status=dead }})
• Cooperation on Afghanistan:
• Russia providing training courses for anti-narcotics officers from Afghanistan and Central Asia countries in cooperation with the UN
• Transportation by Russia of non-military freight in support of NATO's ISAF in Afghanistan, industrial cooperation, cooperation on defence interoperability, non-proliferation, and other areas.

Notably, on a press conference on 28 May 2002 NATO Summit, president Putin was asked about Ukraine's intention to join NATO and answered that "our position on expansion of NATO is known, but Ukraine should not stand aside of the global processes to strengthen the world security and, as a sovereign country, it's able to make its own choices in ensuring its security". He also added he "doesn't see anything controversial or hostile" in Ukraine's plans.{{Cite web |title=NATO Summit Meetings - Rome, Italy - 28 May 2002 |url=https://www.nato.int/docu/comm/2002/0205-rome/0205-rome.htm |access-date=2024-10-26 |website=www.nato.int}}{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeDW5C7Sbb0 |title=путин о вступлении Украины в НАТО. |date=2022-06-24 |last=Ukraine News The Chronicles of War |access-date=2024-10-26 |via=YouTube}}

NATO–Russia relations stalled and subsequently started to deteriorate, following the Ukrainian Orange Revolution in 2004–2005 and the Russo-Georgian War in 2008. Against these headwinds, calls from within the ranks of the US military to increase collaboration fell on hard ground.{{cite journal |last1=Zwack |first1=Peter B. |title=A NATO-Russia Contingency Command |journal=Parameters |date=Spring 2004 |page=89 |author-link=Peter B. Zwack}}

In the years 2005–2006, Russia undertook several hostile trade actions directed against Ukraine and the Western countries (see #Trade and economy below). Several highly publicised murders of Putin's opponents also occurred in Russia in that period, marking his increasingly authoritarian rule and his tightening grip on the media (see #Ideology and propaganda below).

In 2006, Russian intelligence performed an assassination on the territory of a NATO member state. On 1 November 2006, Alexander Litvinenko, a British-naturalised Russian defector and former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) who specialised in tackling organized crime and advised British intelligence and coined the term "mafia state", suddenly fell ill and was hospitalised after poisoning with polonium-210; he died from the poisoning on 23 November.Guinness World Records: [http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/first-murder-by-radiation First murder by radiation]:
On 23 November 2006, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Litvinenko, a retired member of the Russian security services (FSB), died from radiation poisoning in London, UK, becoming the first known victim of lethal Polonium 210-induced acute radiation syndrome. The events leading up to this are well documented, despite spawning numerous theories relating to his poisoning and death. A British murder investigation identified Andrey Lugovoy, a former member of Russia's Federal Protective Service (FSO), as the main suspect. Dmitry Kovtun was later named as a second suspect.{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/9113991/CPS-names-second-suspect-in-Alexander-Litvinenko-poisoning.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/9113991/CPS-names-second-suspect-in-Alexander-Litvinenko-poisoning.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=CPS names second suspect in Alexander Litvinenko poisoning|website=The Telegraph|date=29 February 2012}}{{cbignore}} The United Kingdom demanded that Lugovoy be extradited, however Russia denied the extradition as the Russian constitution prohibits the extradition of Russian citizens, leading to a straining of relations between Russia and the United Kingdom.[http://www.constitution.ru/en/10003000-03.htm Chapter 2. Rights and Freedoms of Man And Citizen | The Constitution of the Russian Federation]. Constitution.ru. Retrieved on 12 August 2013.

{{See also|2007 Munich speech of Vladimir Putin}}

File:Vladimir Putin 4 April 2008-6.jpg, Romania on 4 April 2008]]

In 2007, Russia suspended its participation in the 1990 Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe.

In 2008, Russia condemned the unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo,{{cite news |title=Russia warns of resorting to 'force' over Kosovo |url=https://www.france24.com/en/20080222-russia-warns-resorting-force-over-kosovo-NATO |work=France 24 |date=22 February 2008}} stating they "expect the UN mission and NATO-led forces in Kosovo to take immediate action to carry out their mandate ... including the annulling of the decisions of Pristina's self-governing organs and the taking of tough administrative measures against them."[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7249586.stm In quotes: Kosovo reaction], BBC News Online, 17 February 2008. Russian President Vladimir Putin described the recognition of Kosovo's independence by several major world powers as "a terrible precedent, which will de facto blow apart the whole system of international relations, developed not over decades, but over centuries", and that "they have not thought through the results of what they are doing. At the end of the day it is a two-ended stick and the second end will come back and hit them in the face".{{cite web|url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/putin-calls-kosovo-independence-terrible-precedent/2008/02/23/1203467431503.html|title=Putin calls Kosovo independence 'terrible precedent'|date=2008-02-23|publisher=The Sydney Morning Herald}}

Nevertheless, the heads of state for NATO Allies and Russia gave a positive assessment of NATO-Russia Council achievements in a Bucharest summit meeting in April 2008,{{Cite web|url=http://www.nato.int/issues/nato-russia/topic.html|title=NATO's relations with Russia}} though both sides have expressed mild discontent with the lack of actual content resulting from the council.

In early 2008, U.S. President George W. Bush vowed full support for admitting Georgia and Ukraine into NATO, to the opposition of Russia.{{cite news |date=November 23, 2021 |title=Ukraine: NATO's original sin |work=Politico |url=https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraine-nato-georgia-europe-european-union-united-states/}}{{cite news |last=Menon |first=Rajan |date=10 February 2022 |title=The Strategic Blunder That Led to Today's Conflict in Ukraine |language=en-US |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/world/nato-clinton-ukraine-russia/ |access-date=15 May 2022 |issn=0027-8378}} The Russian Government claimed plans to expand NATO to Ukraine and Georgia may negatively affect European security. Likewise, Russians are mostly strongly opposed to any eastward expansion of NATO.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7324035.stm Bush backs Ukraine on Nato bid], BBC News (1 April 2008)[http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1542/ukrainie-president-blocks-nato-membership-russia-influence Ukraine Says 'No' to NATO], Pew Research Center (29 March 2010) Russian President Dmitry Medvedev stated in 2008 that "no country would be happy about a military bloc to which it did not belong approaching its borders".{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7312045.stm | work=BBC News | title=Medvedev warns on Nato expansion | date=25 March 2008 | access-date=20 May 2010}} Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin warned that any incorporation of Ukraine into NATO would cause a "deep crisis" in Russia–Ukraine relations and also negatively affect Russia's relations with the West.{{cite news |title=Bush stirs controversy over NATO membership |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/04/01/ukraine.analysis/ |work=CNN |date=April 1, 2008}}

Relations between NATO and Russia soured in summer 2008 due to Russia's war with Georgia. Later the North Atlantic Council condemned Russia for recognizing the South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions of Georgia as independent states.{{cite web|url=http://www.nato.int/docu/pr/2008/p08-108e.html |title=NATO Press Release (2008)108 – 27 Aug 2008 |publisher=Nato.int |access-date=2011-12-04}} The Secretary General of NATO claimed that Russia's recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia violated numerous UN Security Council resolutions, including resolutions endorsed by Russia. Russia, in turn, insisted the recognition was taken basing on the situation on the ground, and was in line with the UN Charter, the CSCE Helsinki Final Act of 1975 and other fundamental international law;{{cite web|url=http://www.nato.int/docu/pr/2008/p08-107e.html |title=NATO Press Release (2008)107 – 26 Aug 2008 |publisher=Nato.int |access-date=2011-12-04}} Russian media heavily stressed the precedent of the recent Kosovo declaration of independence.

In January 2009, the Russian envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin said the NATO-Russia council was "a body where scholastic discussions were held." A US official shared this view, stating: "We want now to structure cooperation more practically, in areas where you can achieve results, instead of insisting on things that won't happen."

Relations were further strained in May 2009 when NATO expelled two Russian diplomats over accusations of espionage. It has also added to the tension already created by proposed NATO military exercises in Georgia, as the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said,

The planned NATO exercises in Georgia, no matter how one tries to convince us otherwise, are an overt provocation. One cannot carry out exercises in a place where there was just a war.{{cite web |url= https://www.nation.com.pk/01-May-2009/natorussia-relations-plummet-amid-spying-georgia-rows| title= Nato-Russia relations plummet amid spying, Georgia rows| access-date= 2009-05-01}}

In September 2009, the Russian Government said that United States proposed missile defence system in Poland and in the Czech Republic could threaten its own defences. The Russian Space Forces commander, Colonel General Vladimir Popovkin stated in 2007 that "[the] trajectories of Iranian or North Korean missiles would hardly pass anywhere near the territory of the Czech republic, but every possible launch of Russian ICBM from the territory of the European Russia, or made by Russian Northern Fleet would be controlled by the [radar] station".{{cite web|url=http://www.pravda.ru/news/world/22-08-2007/236012-PRO-0 |title=Военные считают ПРО в Европе прямой угрозой России – Мир – Правда.Ру |publisher=Pravda.ru |date=2007-08-22 |access-date=2011-12-04}}{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6720153.stm | work=BBC News | title=Q&A: US missile defence | date=20 September 2009 | access-date=20 May 2010}} However, later in 2009, Barack Obama canceled the missile defence project in Poland and the Czech Republic after Russia threatened the US with military response, and warned Poland that by agreeing to NATO's anti-missile system, it was exposing itself to a strike or nuclear attack from Russia.

In December 2009, NATO approached Russia for help in Afghanistan, requesting permission for the alliance to fly cargo (including possibly military ones) over Russian territory to Afghanistan and to provide more helicopters for the Afghan armed forces.[https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BF38D20091216 NATO chief asks for Russian help in Afghanistan] Reuters Retrieved on 9 March 2010 However Russia only allowed transit of non-military supplies through its territory.Angela Stent, The Limits of Partnership: U.S.-Russian Relations in the Twenty-First Century (2014) pp 230–232.

Before the Russian Parliamentary elections in 2011, President Dmitry Medvedev was also quoted as saying that had Russia not joined the 2008 Russo-Georgian War, NATO would have expanded further eastward.{{cite web|url=https://civil.ge/archives/186124 |title=Medvedev: August War Stopped Georgia's NATO Membership |publisher=Civil Georgia |date=2011-11-21 |access-date=2024-07-17}}

On 6 June 2011, NATO and Russia participated in their first ever joint fighter jet exercise, dubbed "Vigilant Skies 2011". Since the Cold War, this is only the second joint military venture between the alliance and Russia, with the first being a joint submarine exercise which begun on 30 May 2011.{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/8550653/Russian-and-Nato-jets-to-hold-first-ever-joint-exercise.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/8550653/Russian-and-Nato-jets-to-hold-first-ever-joint-exercise.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Russian and Nato jets to hold first ever joint exercise|date=1 June 2011|work=Telegraph|access-date=22 April 2016}}{{cbignore}}

The 2011 military intervention in Libya prompted a widespread wave of criticism from several world leaders, including Russian President Dmitry Medvedev{{cite news |title=Nato rejects Russian claims of Libya mission creep |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/15/nato-libya-rasmussen-medvedev-criticism |work=The Guardian |date=15 April 2011}} and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who said that "[UNSC Resolution 1973] is defective and flawed...It allows everything. It resembles medieval calls for crusades.""[http://www.timeslive.co.za/world/article979191.ece/West-in-mediaeval-crusade-on-Gaddafi--Putin West in "medieval crusade" on Gaddafi: Putin] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110323111540/http://www.timeslive.co.za/world/article979191.ece/West-in-mediaeval-crusade-on-Gaddafi--Putin |date=23 March 2011 }}." The Times (Reuters). 21 March 2011.

In April 2012, there were some protests in Russia over their country's involvement with NATO, conducted by the leftist activist alliance Left Front.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/world/europe/russians-protest-plan-for-nato-site-in-ulyanovsk.html|work=The New York Times|first=Andrew E.|last=Kramer|title=Russians Protest Plan for NATO Site in Ulyanovsk|date=21 April 2012}}

{{clear}}

[[File:World map showing CSTO and NATO member states with disputed regions.svg|right|thumb|upright=1.6|

{{Legend0|#d40000|CSTO member states}}

{{Legend0|#000080|NATO member states}}

{{Legend0|#ffd900|States affected by territorial conflicts with the involvement of Russia (Azerbaijan, Georgia, Japan, Moldova and Ukraine)}}

{{Legend0|#008000|Disputed regions either unilaterally declared as annexed by Russia into its territory (Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and the Kuril Islands), recognized as sovereign states (Abkhazia and South Ossetia) or supported as separatist regions (Transnistria, Artsakh)}}]]

Beginning in 2014, Russia engaged in further hostile threats followed by military actions against Ukraine (2014–present); Syria (2015–present), and Turkey (2015–2016), among others.

File:Russian SU-27 Flanker with RAF Typhoon MOD 45157730.jpg Eurofighter Typhoon (bottom) escorts Russian Air Force Su-27 Flanker (top) over the Baltic Sea in June 2014]]

File:140314-F-ZZ999-005 (13218009163).jpg tanks take part in a live-fire capabilities demonstration during Cold Response in Norway in 2014]]

In early March 2014, tensions increased between NATO and Russia as a result of Russia's move to annex Crimea: NATO urged Russia to stop its actions and said it supported Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty.{{cite web|url=http://www.euronews.com/2014/03/02/nato-warns-russia-to-cease-and-desist-in-ukraine/|title=NATO warns Russia to cease and desist in Ukraine|work=Euronews.com|access-date=2 March 2014|archive-date=3 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140303041907/http://www.euronews.com/2014/03/02/nato-warns-russia-to-cease-and-desist-in-ukraine/|url-status=dead}} On 1 April 2014, NATO issued a statement by NATO foreign ministers that announced it had "decided to suspend all practical civilian and military cooperation between NATO and Russia. Our political dialogue in the NATO-Russia Council can continue, as necessary, at the Ambassadorial level and above, to allow us to exchange views, first and foremost on this crisis".{{cite web |title=Ukraine Crisis: NATO Suspends Russia Co-operation |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26838894 |publisher=BBC News, UK |date=2 April 2014 |access-date=2 April 2014}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_108501.htm|title=Statement by NATO Foreign Ministers - 1 April 2014|website=NATO}} The statement condemned Russia's "illegal military intervention in Ukraine and Russia's violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity". Russia used Kosovo's declaration of independence as a justification for recognizing the independence of Crimea, citing the so-called "Kosovo independence precedent".{{Cite web|url=http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/20603|title=Address by President of the Russian Federation|website=President of Russia}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/03/24/crimea-kosovo-and-false-moral-equivalency/|title=Why the Kosovo "precedent" does not justify Russia's annexation of Crimea|newspaper=Washington Post}}

On 25 March 2014, Jens Stoltenberg gave a speech to a Norwegian Labour Party convention where he harshly criticized Russia over its invasion of Crimea, stating that Russia threatened security and stability in Europe and violated international law, and calling Russia's actions unacceptable.{{cite news

|url=http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/politikk/Stoltenberg-med-hard-Russland-kritikk-7515432.html

|title=Stoltenberg med hard Russland-kritikk

|trans-title=Stoltenberg was met with fierce criticism from Russia

|date=25 March 2014

|author=Lars Molteberg Glomnes

|newspaper=Aftenposten

|language=no

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140329184805/http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/politikk/Stoltenberg-med-hard-Russland-kritikk-7515432.html

|archive-date=29 March 2014

|url-status=live

}}

After his election as NATO Secretary-General, Stoltenberg emphasized that Russia's invasion of Ukraine was a "brutal reminder of the necessity of NATO," stating that Russia's actions in Ukraine represented "the first time since the Second World War that a country has annexed a territory belonging to another country."{{cite news|url=http://www.dn.no/nyheter/2014/03/28/stoltenberg-russlands-annektering-er-en-brutal-pminnelse-om-natos-viktighet |title=Stoltenberg: – Russlands annektering er en brutal påminnelse om Natos viktighet |trans-title=Stoltenberg: – Russia's annexation is a brutal reminder of the importance of NATO |date=28 March 2014 |language=no |newspaper=Aftenposten |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140329214654/http://www.dn.no/nyheter/2014/03/28/stoltenberg-russlands-annektering-er-en-brutal-pminnelse-om-natos-viktighet |archive-date=29 March 2014 }} Stoltenberg has highlighted the necessity of NATO having a sufficiently strong military capacity, including nuclear weapons, to deter Russia from violating international law and threaten the security of NATO's member states. He has highlighted the importance of Article 5 in the North Atlantic Treaty and NATO's responsibility to defend the security of its eastern members in particular. He has further stated that Russia needs to be sanctioned over its actions in Ukraine, and has said that a possible NATO membership of Ukraine will be "a very important question" in the near future. Stoltenberg has expressed concern over Russia acquiring new cruise missiles.{{cite news

|language=no

|url=http://www.bt.no/nyheter/lokalt/Stoltenberg-frykter-russiske-raketter-3089184.html

|author1=Tron Strand, Anders Haga

|author2=Kjersti Kvile, Lars Kvamme

|title=Stoltenberg frykter russiske raketter

|trans-title=Stoltenberg fears of Russian missiles

|newspaper=Bergens Tidende

|date=28 March 2014

|url-status=live

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140331144525/http://www.bt.no/nyheter/lokalt/Stoltenberg-frykter-russiske-raketter-3089184.html

|archive-date=31 March 2014

}}

On 1 April 2014, NATO unanimously decided to suspend all practical co-operation with the Russian Federation in response to the Annexation of Crimea, but the NATO-Russia Council (NRC) was not suspended.{{cite web |url=https://www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/2020/4/pdf/2003-NATO-Russia_en.pdf|title=NATO-Russia Relations: The Background|author= |date=March 2020|website= |publisher=NATO|access-date=2021-06-11}} At the NATO Wales summit in early September, the NATO-Ukraine Commission adopted a Joint Statement that "strongly condemned Russia's illegal and illegitimate self-declared "annexation" of Crimea and its continued and deliberate destabilization of eastern Ukraine in violation of international law";[http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_112695.htm Joint Statement of the NATO-Ukraine Commission], 4 September 2014. This position was re-affirmed in the early December statement by the same body.[http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_115474.htm Joint statement of the NATO-Ukraine Commission], 2 December 2014.

A report released in November highlighted the fact that close military encounters between Russia and the West (mainly NATO countries) had jumped to Cold War levels, with 40 dangerous or sensitive incidents recorded in the eight months alone, including a near-collision between a Russian reconnaissance plane and a passenger plane taking off from Denmark in March with 132 passengers on board.{{cite news |first=Ewen |last=MacAskill |title=Close military encounters between Russia and the west 'at cold war levels' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/10/close-military-encounters-russia-west-cold-war |newspaper=The Guardian |location=UK |date=2014-11-09 |access-date=2014-12-28}} An unprecedented increase{{cite news |title=Russia Baltic military actions 'unprecedented' - Poland |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30429349 |publisher=BBC News |location=UK |date=2014-12-28 |access-date=2014-12-28}} in Russian air force and naval activity in the Baltic region prompted NATO to step up its longstanding rotation of military jets in Lithuania.{{cite news |title=Four RAF Typhoon jets head for Lithuania deployment |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-27183642 |publisher=BBC News |location=UK |date=2014-04-28 |access-date=2014-12-28}} Similar Russian air force increased activity in the Asia-Pacific region that relied on the resumed use of the previously abandoned Soviet military base at Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam.{{cite news |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-vietnam-russia-exclusive-idUSKBN0M71NA20150311 |publisher=Reuters |title=U.S. asks Vietnam to stop helping Russian bomber flights |date=2015-03-11 |access-date=2015-04-12}} In March 2015, Russia's defense minister Sergei Shoigu said that Russia's long-range bombers would continue patrolling various parts of the world and expand into other regions.{{cite news |title=Russian Strategic Bombers To Continue Patrolling Missions |url=http://www.rferl.org/content/russian-strategic-bombers-to-continue-patrolling-missions/26877218.html |publisher=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |date=2015-03-02 |access-date=2015-03-02}}

In July, the U.S. formally accused Russia of having violated the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty by testing a prohibited medium-range ground-launched cruise missile (presumably R-500,{{cite web|url=http://csis.org/publication/russian-inf-treaty-violations-assessment-and-response|title=Russian INF Treaty Violations: Assessment and Response|date=16 October 2014 |access-date=22 April 2016|last1=Schwartz |first1=Paul N. }} a modification of Iskander){{cite news |title=U.S. Says Russia Tested Cruise Missile, Violating Treaty |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/29/world/europe/us-says-russia-tested-cruise-missile-in-violation-of-treaty.html |newspaper=The New York Times |location=USA |date=2014-07-28 |access-date=2015-01-04 |first=Michael R. |last=Gordon}} and threatened to retaliate accordingly.{{cite news |title=US and Russia in danger of returning to era of nuclear rivalry |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/04/us-russia-era-nuclear-rivalry |newspaper=The Guardian |location=UK |date=2015-01-04 |access-date=2015-01-04}} In early June 2015, the U.S. State Department reported that Russia had failed to correct the violation of the I.N.F. Treaty; the U.S. government was said to have made no discernible headway in making Russia so much as acknowledge the compliance problem.{{cite news |title=U.S. Says Russia Failed to Correct Violation of Landmark 1987 Arms Control Deal |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/06/world/europe/us-says-russia-fails-to-correct-violation-of-landmark-1987-arms-control-deal.html?_r=0 |newspaper=The New York Times |location=US |date=2015-06-05 |access-date=2015-06-07 |first=Michael R. |last=Gordon}}

The US government's October 2014 report claimed that Russia had 1,643 nuclear warheads ready to launch (an increase from 1,537 in 2011) – one more than the US, thus overtaking the US for the first time since 2000; both countries' deployed capacity being in violation of the 2010 New START treaty that sets a cap of 1,550 nuclear warheads.{{cite news |first=Matthew |last=Bodner |title=Russia Overtakes U.S. in Nuclear Warhead Deployment |url=http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/russia-overtakes-u-s-in-nuclear-warhead-deployment-/508409.html |newspaper=The Moscow Times |location=Moscow |date=2014-10-03 |access-date=2014-12-28}} Likewise, even before 2014, the US had set about implementing a large-scale program, worth up to a trillion dollars, aimed at overall revitalization of its atomic energy industry, which includes plans for a new generation of weapon carriers and construction of such sites as the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Facility in Los Alamos, New Mexico and the National Security Campus in south Kansas City.[http://cns.miis.edu/opapers/pdfs/140107_trillion_dollar_nuclear_triad.pdf The Trillion Dollar Nuclear Triad] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160123002308/http://cns.miis.edu/opapers/pdfs/140107_trillion_dollar_nuclear_triad.pdf |date=23 January 2016}} James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies: Monterey, CA. January 2014.{{cite news |title=U.S. Ramping Up Major Renewal in Nuclear Arms |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/22/us/us-ramping-up-major-renewal-in-nuclear-arms.html?_r=0 |newspaper=The New York Times |location=USA |date=2014-09-21 |access-date=2015-01-05 |first1=William J. |last1=Broad |first2=David E. |last2=Sanger}}

In 2014, two explosions of ammunition depots occurred in Vrbětice, Vlachovice, in the Zlín District of the Czech Republic.{{Cite web|date=2021-04-21|title=Russian military attack on the Czech territory: details, implications and next steps|url=https://europeanvalues.cz/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/REPORT_EV_Russian_military_attack_on_the_Czech_territory_Details_implications_and_next_steps.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210421064919/https://europeanvalues.cz/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/REPORT_EV_Russian_military_attack_on_the_Czech_territory_Details_implications_and_next_steps.pdf|archive-date=2021-04-21|website=Kremlin Watch Report}} [https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafybeiffcalrmaw2gu7l4u4m5tgni6ewtq77x3rlyvnbcjmkogw6mmls4m Alt URL] The first explosion occurred on 16 October, and the second on 3 December. Two people were killed in the first explosion. The cleanup of unexploded ammunition left by the blasts was finished on 13 October 2020.{{Cite web|last=Kramář|first=Rudolf|date=2020-10-14|title=Zásah ve Vrběticích je po dlouhých letech ukončen |trans-title=The intervention in Vrbětice is over after many years|url=https://www.hzscr.cz/clanek/zasah-ve-vrbeticich-je-po-dlouhych-letech-ukoncen.aspx|access-date=2021-04-25|website=hzscr.cz|language=cs}} According to the Security Information Service and the Police of the Czech Republic, two agents from GRU Unit 29155 were involved in the explosions, with the motivation of disrupting weapons supplies to Ukraine.{{Cite web|date=2021-04-17|title=Czechia expels Russian diplomats over 2014 ammunition depot blast|url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/17/czech-expels-russian-diplomats-over-2014-ammunition-depot-blast|access-date=2021-04-17|website=Al Jazeera English}}{{Cite web|last1=Eckel|first1=Mike|last2=Bedrov|first2=Ivan|last3=Komarova|first3=Olha|date=2021-04-18|title=A Czech Explosion, Russian Agents, A Bulgarian Arms Dealer: The Recipe For A Major Spy Scandal In Central Europe|url=https://www.rferl.org/a/czech-expulsions-bulgaria-gebrev-russia-gru-intelligence-explosion-spy-scandal/31209960.html|access-date=2021-04-19|website=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty}} On April 29, 2024, Czech president Petr Pavel declared the investigations and information available to him confirm the event to be a Russian attack on Czech (thus NATO) soil.{{Cite web |last=Pavel |first=Petr |date=2024-04-29 |title=Czech president April 29th 2024 tweet on the 2014 ammunition depot explosion. |url=https://twitter.com/prezidentpavel/status/1784902822221246468}}

On 2 December 2014, NATO foreign ministers announced an interim Spearhead Force (the 'Very High Readiness Joint Task Force') created pursuant to the Readiness Action Plan agreed on at the NATO Wales summit in early September 2014 and meant to enhance NATO presence in the eastern part of the alliance.[http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_115551.htm Statement of Foreign Ministers on the Readiness Action Plan] NATO, 02 Dec 2014.{{cite web|url=http://www.neurope.eu/article/nato-condemns-russia-supports-ukraine-agrees-rapid-reaction-force|title=NATO condemns Russia, supports Ukraine, agrees to rapid-reaction force|work=New Europe|access-date=22 April 2016}} In June 2015, in the course of military drills held in Poland, NATO tested the new rapid reaction force for the first time, with more than 2,000 troops from nine states taking part in the exercise.{{cite news |title=Nato shows its sharp end in Polish war games |url=http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/79032a24-1660-11e5-b07f-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3e0cPGWLr |location=UK |work=Financial Times |date=2015-06-19 |access-date=2015-06-24}}{{cite news |title=Nato testing new rapid reaction force for first time |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33233721 |location=UK |publisher=BBC News |date=2015-06-23 |access-date=2015-06-24}}

At the end of 2014, Putin approved a revised national military doctrine, which listed NATO's military buildup near the Russian borders as the top military threat.{{cite web|url=http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/14758/russia-s-new-military-doctrine-hypes-nato-threat|title=Russia's New Military Doctrine Hypes NATO Threat|date=30 December 2014 |access-date=22 April 2016}}[http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/12/26/putin-signs-new-military-doctrine-naming-nato-as-russias-top-military-threat/ Putin signs new military doctrine naming NATO as Russia's top military threat] National Post, December 26, 2014.

Stoltenberg has called for more cooperation with Russia in the fight against terrorism following the deadly January 2015 attack on the headquarters of a French satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris."[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-08/nato-cites-russia-as-anti-terror-ally-after-paris-attack.html NATO Head Says Russian Anti-Terror Cooperation Important]". Bloomberg. 8 January 2015

In early February 2015, NATO diplomats said that concern was growing in NATO over Russia's nuclear strategy and indications that Russia's nuclear strategy appeared to point to a lowering of the threshold for using nuclear weapons in any conflict.{{cite news |title=Insight - Russia's nuclear strategy raises concerns in NATO |url=http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ukraine-crisis-russia-nuclear-insight-idUKKBN0L825A20150204 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151214110901/http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ukraine-crisis-russia-nuclear-insight-idUKKBN0L825A20150204 |url-status=dead |archive-date=14 December 2015 |access-date=6 February 2015 |work=Reuters |date=4 February 2015}} The conclusion was followed by British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon saying that Britain must update its nuclear arsenal in response to Russian modernization of its nuclear forces.{{cite news |title=Supplying weapons to Ukraine would escalate conflict: Fallon |url=http://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-crisis-fallon-idUSKBN0LA1Q820150206 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181201111533/https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-crisis-fallon-idUSKBN0LA1Q820150206 |url-status=dead |archive-date=1 December 2018 |access-date=6 February 2015 |work=Reuters |date=6 February 2015 |first=Adrian |last=Croft}} Later in February, Fallon said that Putin could repeat tactics used in Ukraine in Baltic members of the NATO alliance; he also said: "NATO has to be ready for any kind of aggression from Russia, whatever form it takes. NATO is getting ready."{{cite news |title=Russia a threat to Baltic states after Ukraine conflict, warns Michael Fallon |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/feb/19/russia-a-threat-to-baltic-states-after-ukraine-conflict-warns-michael-fallon |author=Press Association |newspaper=The Guardian |location=UK |date=2015-02-19 |access-date=2015-02-19}} Fallon noted that it was not a new Cold War with Russia, as the situation was already "pretty warm".

In March 2015, Russia, citing NATO's alleged breach of the 1990 Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, said that the suspension of its participation in it, announced in 2007, was now "complete" through halting its participation in the consulting group on the Treaty.{{cite web |url=http://www.mid.ru/brp_4.nsf/newsline/DF4749F53CF96B4043257E040058061A |title=Заявление руководителя Делегации Российской Федерации на переговорах в Вене по вопросам военной безопасности и контроля над вооружениями |author=А.Ю.Мазура |date=10 March 2015 |publisher=RF Foreign Ministry website}}{{cite news |title=Russia says halts activity in European security treaty group |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-crisis-europe-security-idUSKBN0M61RH20150310 |location=UK |work=Reuters |date=2015-03-10 |access-date=2015-03-31 |first=Thomas |last=Grove}}

In spring, the Russian Defense Ministry announced it was planning to deploy additional forces in Crimea as part of beefing up its Black Sea Fleet, including re-deployment by 2016 of nuclear-capable Tupolev Tu-22M3 ('Backfire') long-range strike bombers—which used to be the backbone of Soviet naval strike units during the Cold War, but were later withdrawn from bases in Crimea.{{cite news |first=Pavel |last=Aksenov |title=Why would Russia deploy bombers in Crimea? |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33649298 |location=London |publisher=BBC |date=2015-07-24 |access-date=2015-12-03}} Early April 2015 saw the publication of the leaked information ascribed to semi-official sources within the Russian military and intelligence establishment, about Russia's alleged preparedness for a nuclear response to certain inimical non-nuclear acts on the part of NATO; such implied threats were interpreted as "an attempt to create strategic uncertainty" and undermine Western political cohesion.{{cite news |title=From Russia with Menace |url=https://www.thetimes.com/comment/register/article/from-russia-with-menace-ctz29fb08sj?region=global |access-date=2 April 2015 |newspaper=The Times |date=2 April 2015}} Also in this vein, Norway's defense minister, Ine Eriksen Søreide, noted that Russia had "created uncertainty about its intentions".{{cite news |title=Norway Reverts to Cold War Mode as Russian Air Patrols Spike |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/02/world/europe/a-newly-assertive-russia-jolts-norways-air-defenses-into-action.html?_r=0 |access-date=5 April 2015 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=1 April 2015 |first=Andrew |last=Higgins}}

Between 28 April and 4 May 2015, the Russian GRU Unit 29155 perpetrated in Sofia (thus on NATO soil) the poisoning with Novichok of Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrev, who was supplying arms to Ukraine and Georgia.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/22/world/europe/bulgaria-russia-assassination-squad.html|title=How a Poisoning in Bulgaria Exposed Russian Assassins in Europe|first=Michael|last=Schwirtz|date=22 December 2019|via=NYTimes.com}} Gebrev, his son and his factory manager survived two poisoning attempts.{{Cite web|url=https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/bulgaria-seeks-extradition-of-three-spies-from-russia-in-novichok-case/|title=Bulgaria seeks extradition of three spies from Russia in Novichok case|date=21 November 2023}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.ft.com/content/b1aa5696-6515-487d-ba4d-380c9c431c18|title=Russian hitmen and saboteurs target Bulgaria's arms industry, magnate says|first=Marton|last=Dunai|date=19 November 2023}}

In June 2015, an independent Russian military analyst was quoted by a major American newspaper as saying: "Everybody should understand that we are living in a totally different world than two years ago. In that world, which we lost, it was possible to organize your security with treaties, with mutual-trust measures. Now we have come to an absolutely different situation, where the general way to ensure your security is military deterrence."MacFarquhar, Neil, [http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/06/17/world/europe/putin-40-new-missiles-russian-nuclear-arsenal.html "As Vladimir Putin Talks More Missiles and Might, Cost Tells Another Story"], New York Times, June 16, 2015. Retrieved 2015-06-17.

On 16 June 2015, Tass quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksey Meshkov as saying that "none of the Russia-NATO programs that used to be at work are functioning at a working level."[http://tass.ru/en/russia/801076 Not a single Russia-NATO cooperation program works — Russian diplomat] TASS, 16 June 2015.

In late June 2015, while on a trip to Estonia, US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter said the US would deploy heavy weapons, including tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery, in Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania.{{cite news |title=US announces new tank and artillery deployment in Europe |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33238004 |location=UK |publisher=BBC |date=2015-06-23 |access-date=2015-06-24}} The move was interpreted by Western commentators as marking the beginning of a reorientation of NATO's strategy.{{cite news |title=NATO shifts strategy in Europe to deal with Russia threat |url=http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/dd3604bc-19a8-11e5-8201-cbdb03d71480.html#axzz3e0cPGWLr |location=UK |publisher=FT |date=2015-06-23 |access-date=2015-06-24}} It was called by a senior Russian Defence Ministry official "the most aggressive act by Washington since the Cold War"{{cite news |title=Putin says Russia beefing up nuclear arsenal, NATO denounces 'saber-rattling' |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-nuclear-putin-idUSKBN0OW17X20150616 |access-date=27 June 2015 |work=Reuters |date=16 June 2015}} and criticised by the Russian Foreign Ministry as "inadequate in military terms" and "an obvious return by the United States and its allies to the schemes of 'the Cold War'".[http://www.mid.ru/brp_4.nsf/newsline/E5ADC981E95C68DC43257E70006784BD Комментарий Департамента информации и печати МИД России по итогам встречи министров обороны стран-членов НАТО] the RF Foreign Ministry, 26 June 2015.

On its part, the U.S. expressed concern over Putin's announcement of plans to add over 40 new ballistic missiles to Russia's nuclear weapons arsenal in 2015. American observers and analysts, such as Steven Pifer, noting that the U.S. had no reason for alarm about the new missiles, provided that Russia remained within the limits of the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), viewed the ratcheting-up of nuclear saber-rattling by Russia's leadership as mainly bluff and bluster designed to conceal Russia's weaknesses;Steven Pifer, Fiona Hill. [https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/16/opinion/putins-risky-game-of-chicken.html "Putin's Risky Game of Chicken"], New York Times, June 15, 2015. Retrieved 2015-06-18. however, Pifer suggested that the most alarming motivation behind this rhetoric could be Putin seeing nuclear weapons not merely as tools of deterrence, but as tools of coercion.Steven Pifer. [http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/order-from-chaos/posts/2015/06/17-putin-nuclear-saber-rattling-pifer Putin's nuclear saber-rattling: What is he compensating for?] 17 June 2015.

Meanwhile, at the end of June 2015, it was reported that the production schedule for a new Russian MIRV-equipped, super-heavy thermonuclear intercontinental ballistic missile Sarmat, intended to replace the obsolete Soviet-era SS-18 Satan missiles, was slipping.{{cite news |title=Russian Program to Build World's Biggest Intercontinental Missile Delayed |url=http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/russian-program-to-build-world-s-biggest-intercontinental-missile-delayed/524511.html |access-date=27 June 2015 |newspaper=The Moscow Times |date=26 June 2015}} Also noted by commentators were the inevitable financial and technological constraints that would hamper any real arms race with the West, if such course were to be embarked on by Russia.

Under the Stoltenberg leadership, NATO took a radically new position on propaganda and counter-propaganda in 2015, that "Entirely legal activities, such as running a pro-Moscow TV station, could become a broader assault on a country that would require a NATO response under Article Five of the Treaty... A final strategy is expected in October 2015."[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/11693497/US-confirms-it-will-place-250-tanks-in-eastern-Europe-to-counter-Russian-threat.html telegraph.co.uk: "US confirms it will place 250 tanks in eastern Europe to counter Russian threat"], 23 Jun 2015 In another report, the journalist reported that "as part of the hardened stance, Britain has committed £750,000 of UK money to support a counter-propaganda unit at NATO's headquarters in Brussels."[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/predictions/politics/11697512/Nato-updates-Cold-War-playbook-as-Putin-vows-to-build-nuclear-stockpile.html telegraph.co.uk: "Nato updates Cold War playbook as Putin vows to build nuclear stockpile"], 25 Jun 2015

In November NATO's top military commander US General Philip Breedlove said that the alliance was "watching for indications" amid fears over the possibility that Russia could move any of its nuclear arsenal to the peninsula.{{cite web|url=http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/nato-very-concerned-by-russian-military-build-up-in-crimea.aspx?pageID=238&nID=74852&NewsCatID=359|title=NATO 'very concerned' by Russian military build-up in Crimea |work=Hurriyet Daily News|access-date=22 April 2016}}

NATO-Russia tensions rose further after, on 24 November 2015, Turkey shot down a Russian warplane that allegedly violated Turkish airspace while on a mission in northwestern Syria.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/25/world/europe/turkey-syria-russia-military-plane.html?_r=0|title=NATO-Russia Tensions Rise After Turkey Downs Jet |work=The New York Times|date=24 November 2015|access-date=29 November 2015}} Russian officials denied that the plane had entered Turkish airspace. Shortly after the incident, NATO called an emergency meeting to discuss the matter. Stoltenberg said "We stand in solidarity with Turkey and support the territorial integrity of our NATO ally".{{cite news|title=Turkey's downing of Russian warplane – what we know|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34912581|publisher=BBC|date=24 November 2015}}

On 2 December 2015, NATO member states formally invited Montenegro to join the alliance, which drew a response from Russia that it would suspend cooperation with that country.{{cite news |url= https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/12/02/world/europe/ap-eu-nato-montenegro.html?_r=0 |title=ATO Invites Montenegro to Join, as Russia Plots Response |newspaper=The New York Times |date=2 December 2015 |access-date=2 December 2015}}

In December, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said re-deployment of nuclear-capable Tupolev Tu-22M3 ('Backfire') long-range strike bombers to Crimea would be a legitimate action as "Crimea has now become part of a country that has such weapons under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons."{{cite web|url=http://en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/239978.html|title=Crimea|agency=Interfax-Ukraine|access-date=22 April 2016}}

{{see also|USS Donald Cook#History}}

File:Vladimir Putin and Sergey Shoigu - Saint-Petersburg 2017-07-30 (1).jpg, who has ruled Russia since 1999, with former longtime Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu]]

Shortly before a meeting of the NATO–Russia Council at the level of permanent representatives on 20 April, the first such meeting since June 2014,[http://www.ng.ru/world/2016-04-14/1_nato.html НАТО созрело для диалога с Москвой] Nezavisimaya gazeta, 14 April 2016. Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov cited what he saw as "an unprecedented military buildup since the end of the Cold War and the presence of NATO on the so-called eastern flank of the alliance with the goal of exerting military and political pressure on Russia for containing it", and said "Russia does not plan and will not be drawn into a senseless confrontation and is convinced that there is no reasonable alternative to mutually beneficial all-European cooperation in security sphere based on the principle of indivisibility of security relying on the international law."{{cite web|url=http://tass.ru/en/politics/869541|title=TASS: Russian Politics & Diplomacy - Lavrov: Russia will not allow NATO to embroil it into senseless confrontation|work=TASS|date=14 April 2016}}{{cite web |url=http://ria.ru/politics/20160414/1410447310.html |title=Лавров: РФ не даст НАТО втянуть себя в бессмысленное противостояние|work=РИА Новости |date=14 April 2016}} Russia has also warned against moving defensive missiles to Turkey's border with Syria.{{cite web |url=http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/security/01/11/turkey-missile-defense.html |title=Turkish Request for Missiles Strains Ties With Russia |work=Al-Monitor |access-date=22 April 2016}}

After the meeting, the Russian ambassador to NATO said Russia was feeling comfortable without having co-operative relations with the alliance; he noted that at the time Russia and NATO had no positive agenda to pursue.[http://ria.ru/world/20160420/1415742107.html Грушко: позитивной повестки дня у России и НАТО сейчас нет] RIA Novosti, 20 April 2016. The NATO secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said: "NATO and Russia have profound and persistent disagreements. Today's meeting did not change that."{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/20/nato-russia-council-talks-fail-iron-out-differences-jens-stoltenberg |title=Nato-Russia Council talks fail to iron out differences |work=The Guardian |last=Borger |first=Julian |date=20 April 2016}}{{cite news| work=CNN| title=U.S. launches long-awaited European missile defense shield| last=Browne| first=Ryan| date=12 May 2016| url=http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/11/politics/nato-missile-defense-romania-poland/| access-date=24 August 2016}}

The opening of the first site of the NATO missile defence system in Deveselu, Romania, in May 2016 led Russia to reiterate its position that the U.S.-built system undermined Russia's security, posed "direct threat to global and regional security", was in violation of the INF, and that measures were "being taken to ensure the necessary level of security for Russia".{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/13/world/europe/russia-nato-us-romania-missile-defense.html?_r=0|title=Russia Calls New U.S. Missile Defense System a 'Direct Threat'|work=The New York Times|date=12 May 2016}}

A June 2016 Levada poll found that 68% of Russians think that deploying NATO troops in the former Eastern bloc countries bordering Russia is a threat to Russia.[http://www.levada.ru/en/2016/11/04/levada-center_chicago_council/ Levada-Center and Chicago Council on Global Affairs about Russian-American relations] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170819190307/http://www.levada.ru/en/2016/11/04/levada-center_chicago_council/ |date=19 August 2017 }}. Levada-Center. 4 November 2016.

The NATO summit held in Warsaw in July 2016 approved the plan to move four battalions totaling 3,000 to 4,000 troops on a rotating basis by early 2017 into the Baltic states and eastern Poland and increase air and sea patrols to reassure allies who were once part of the Soviet bloc.[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nato-summit-idUSKCN0ZN2NL NATO agrees to reinforce eastern Poland, Baltic states against Russia] Reuters, 8 July 2016. The adopted Communique explained that the decision was meant "to unambiguously demonstrate, as part of our overall posture, Allies' solidarity, determination, and ability to act by triggering an immediate Allied response to any aggression."[http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_133169.htm?selectedLocale=en Warsaw Summit Communiqué] See para 40. The summit reaffirmed NATO's previously taken decision to "suspend all practical civilian and military cooperation between NATO and Russia, while remaining open to political dialogue with Russia".[http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_133169.htm?selectedLocale=en Warsaw Summit Communiqué] See para 11.

Heads of State and Government "condemned Russia's ongoing and wide-ranging military build-up" in Crimea and expressed concern over "Russia's efforts and stated plans for further military build-up in the Black Sea region".[http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_133169.htm?selectedLocale=en Warsaw Summit Communiqué] See para 17. They also stated that Russia's "significant military presence and support for the regime in Syria", and its military build-up in the Eastern Mediterranean "posed further risks and challenges for the security of Allies and others".[http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_133169.htm?selectedLocale=en Warsaw Summit Communiqué] See para 10. NATO leaders agreed to step up support for Ukraine: in a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission, the Allied leaders reviewed the security situation with President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, welcomed the government's plans for reform, and endorsed a Comprehensive Assistance Package for Ukraine aimed to "help make Ukraine's defence and security institutions more effective, efficient and accountable".{{Cite web|url=http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_133806.htm|title=NATO leaders confirm strong support for Ukraine|website=NATO}}

At the meeting of the Russia–NATO Council at the level of permanent representatives that was held shortly after the Warsaw summit, Russia admonished NATO against intensifying its military activity in the Black Sea.{{Cite web|url=http://ria.ru/politics/20160713/1465431528.html|title=Москва предупредила НАТО о последствиях военной активности в Черном море - РИА Новости, 02.03.2020}} Russia also said it agreed to have its military aircraft pilots flying over the Baltic region turn on the cockpit transmitters, known as transponders, if NATO planes acted likewise.{{cite web|url=http://in.reuters.com/article/nato-russia-idINKCN0ZU09N |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160714201110/http://in.reuters.com/article/nato-russia-idINKCN0ZU09N |url-status=dead |archive-date=14 July 2016 |title=Russia offers to fly warplanes more safely over Baltics|work=Reuters|date=14 July 2016}}

In July 2016, Russia's military announced that a regiment of long-range surface-to-air S-400 weapon system would be deployed in the city of Feodosia in Crimea in August that year, beefing up Russia's anti-access/area denial capabilities around the peninsula.[https://www.gazeta.ru/army/2016/07/15/9692405.shtml «Триумф» в Крыму] Gazeta.ru, 17 July 2016.

A coup d'état in the capital of Montenegro, Podgorica was allegedly planned and prepared for 16 October 2016, the day of the parliamentary election, according to Montenegro's special prosecutor.{{cite web |last1=Bajrović |first1=Reuf |last2=Garčević |first2=Vesko |last3=Kramer |first3=Richard |title=Hanging by a Thread: Russia's Policy of Destabilization in Montenegro |url=https://www.fpri.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/kraemer-rfp5.pdf |publisher=Foreign Policy Research Institute}} In September 2017, the trial of those indicted in connection with the plot began in the High Court in Podgorica, the indictees including leaders of the Montenegrin opposition and two alleged Russian intelligence agents. Russian government officials denied any involvement.{{Cite web|url=https://www.drzavniudar.me/|title=Афера ”Државни удар” у Црној Гори – збирка докумената и анализа}}{{cite web|title=U Crnoj Gori nastavljeno suđenje za državni udar|publisher=Al Jazeera (September 2017)|url=http://balkans.aljazeera.net/vijesti/u-crnoj-gori-nastavljeno-sudenje-za-drzavni-udar}}[https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/31087966.html Ukinuta presuda za 'državni udar' u Crnoj Gori, DPS tvrdi rezultat pritiska na sud], Slobodna Evropa, 5 February 2021 It is believed that the plot was designed as a last-ditch attempt by the Montenegrin pro-Serbian and pro-Russian opposition to prevent Montenegro's accession to NATO,{{cite news |title=How the use of ethnonationalism backfired in Montenegro |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/9/4/how-the-use-of-ethnonationalism-backfired-in-montenegro/ |work=Al-Jazeera |date=4 September 2020}} a move stridently opposed by Russia's government that had issued direct threats to Montenegro concerning such eventuality.[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/25/montenegro-tensions-russia-joins-nato-member Montenegro finds itself at heart of tensions with Russia as it joins Nato: Alliance that bombed country only 18 years ago welcomes it as 29th member in move that has left its citizens divided] The Guardian, 25 May 2017.[https://www.pnp.ru/in-world/2016/05/19/v-bryussele-podpisan-protokol-ovstuplenii-chernogorii-v-nato.html В Брюсселе подписан протокол о вступлении Черногории в НАТО] Парламентская газета, 19 May 2016.{{cite web|url=http://docs.cntd.ru/document/420361723|title=Об обращении Государственной Думы Федерального Собрания Российской Федерации "К парламентариям государств - членов Организации Североатлантического договора, Парламентской ассамблеи Организации по безопасности и сотрудничеству в Европе, Народной скупщины Республики Сербии, Скупщины Черногории, Парламентской Ассамблеи Боснии и Герцеговины, Собрания Республики Македонии", Постановление Государственной Думы от 22 июня 2016 года №9407-6 ГД, Обращение Государственной Думы от 22 июня 2016 года №9407-6 ГД|website=docs.cntd.ru|access-date=21 February 2018}}[https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/06/29/russian-hacks-john-mccain-column/436354001/ John McCain: Russia threat is dead serious. Montenegro coup and murder plot proves it.] USA Today, 29 June 2017.[https://www.rferl.org/a/montenegro-djukovic-russia-destroy-eu-nato/28369362.html Former Montenegrin PM Says Russia Wants To Destroy EU] Radio Liberty, 14 March 2017. This theory was re-affirmed by the court verdict handed down in 2019.[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-montenegro-court-idUSKCN1SF144 Russians, opposition figures sentenced over role in 2016 Montenegro coup attempt]. Reuters, 9 May 2019. The Moscow–based Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (RISS), which has close ties to Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), was mentioned by mass media as one of the organisations involved in devising the coup plot; in early November 2017, Russian president Vladimir Putin sacked the RISS director, Leonid P. Reshetnikov, a ranking veteran officer of the SVR.{{Cite web |last=Доброхотов |first=Роман |author-link=Roman Dobrokhotov |date=2017-03-24 |title=Кремлевский спрут. Часть 2. Как ГРУ пыталось организовать переворот в Черногории |url=https://theins1.press/politika/49316 |website=The Insider |language=ru}}[https://korrespondent.net/world/3777194-orhanyzatory-perevorota-v-chernohoryy-uchastvovaly-v-anneksyy-kryma-smy Организаторы переворота в Черногории участвовали в аннексии Крыма – СМИ] Корреспондент.net, 21 November 2016. In May 2019 the then Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, Jeremy Hunt, stated:

The failed coup attempt against Montenegro in 2016 was one of the most outrageous examples of Russia’s attempts to undermine European democracy. The GRU’s brazen attempt to interfere with Montenegro’s national elections and undermine Montenegro’s application to join NATO is yet another example of destabilising and aggressive Russian behaviour over the last decade.{{cite web |title=Attempted coup in Montenegro in 2016: Foreign Secretary's statement |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/news/foreign-secretary-statement-on-the-attempted-coup-in-montenegro-in-2016 |date=9 May 2019}}

File:SD meets with NATO Secretary General 170321-D-SV709-051 (33190154960).jpg at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., 21 March 2017]]

On 18 February 2017, the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov said he supported the resumption of military cooperation with the NATO alliance.{{cite web|url=https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-lavrov-want-cooperation-with-nato-pragmatic-us-ties/28317270.html|title=Lavrov Says Russia Wants Military Cooperation With NATO, 'Pragmatic' U.S. Ties|author= |date=18 February 2017|publisher=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty|access-date=2021-06-11}} In late March 2017, the NATO-Russia Council met in advance of a NATO Foreign Ministers conference in Brussels, Belgium.Barnes, Julian E., [https://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-nato-diplomats-discuss-military-deployments-in-baltic-sea-region-1490893510 "Russian, NATO Diplomats Discuss Military Deployments in Baltic Sea Region"] {{subscription required}}, The Wall Street Journal, 30 March 2017. Retrieved 2017-03-30. In July 2017, the Council met again in Brussels. Following the meeting, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that Allies and Russia had had a "frank and constructive discussion" on Ukraine, Afghanistan, and transparency and risk reduction.[http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/opinions_146220.htm Press point by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg following the meeting of the NATO-Russia Council] nato.int, 13 July 2013. The two sides briefed each other on the upcoming Russia's/Belarus′ Zapad 2017 exercise, and NATO's Exercise Trident Javelin 2017, respectively.[https://web.archive.org/web/20170713192017/http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-nato-idUKKBN19Y1WA Russia tells NATO to stop 'demonising' planned war games] Reuters, 13 July 2017.

At the end of August 2017, NATO declared that NATO's four multinational battlegroups in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland were fully operational, a move that was implemented pursuant to the decision taken at the 2016 Warsaw summit.[http://nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_146557.htm NATO battlegroups in Baltic nations and Poland fully operational] nato.int, 28 August 2017.

In 2017, UK Secretary of State for Defence Michael Fallon warned that Russia's Zapad 2017 exercise in Belarus and Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast was "designed to provoke us". Fallon falsely claimed that the number of Russian troops taking part in exercise could reach 100,000, although technically Russia could have increased the number of participating troops to 100,000 and beyond had it felt like doing so.{{cite news|date=22 September 2017|title=Russia was the target of Nato's own fake news|work=The Independent|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/russia-zapad-2017-putin-west-fake-news-us-world-war-three-ukraine-belarus-nato-a7961856.html}}

In February 2018, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated: "We don't see any threat [from Russia] against any NATO ally and therefore, I'm always careful speculating too much about hypothetical situations."{{cite news |title=NATO sees no Russian threat to any of its members — head |url=https://tass.com/world/990990 |work=TASS |date=21 February 2018}} Stoltenberg welcomed the 2018 Russia–United States summit between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in Helsinki, Finland.{{cite news |title=The Latest: Gorbachev has high hopes for Putin-Trump summit |url=https://apnews.com/a8cad273fde84304a2aa31c6cd5cf7a6 |work=Associated Press |date=June 28, 2018}} He said NATO is not trying to isolate Russia.{{cite news |title=NATO chief warns against isolating Russia |url=https://www.euronews.com/2018/07/11/nato-chief-warns-against-isolating-russia |work=Euronews |date=12 July 2018}}

In response to the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury (thus on NATO soil) on 4 March 2018, Stoltenberg announced on 27 March 2018 that NATO would be expelling seven Russian diplomats from the Russian mission to NATO in Brussels. In addition, 3 unfilled positions at the mission were denied accreditation from NATO. Russia blamed the US for the NATO response.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-43550938|title=Nato slashes Russia staff after poisoning|date=2018-03-27|work=BBC News|access-date=2018-03-27|language=en-GB}} The attempted assassination and subsequent agent exposures was an embarrassment for Putin and for Russia's spying organisation.{{cite news |last1=Harding |first1=Luke |title=A chain of stupidity': the Skripal case and the decline of Russia's spy agencies |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/23/skripal-salisbury-poisoning-decline-of-russia-spy-agencies-gru |access-date=25 August 2023 |agency=The Guardian |date=23 June 2020 |archive-date=5 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200705003712/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/23/skripal-salisbury-poisoning-decline-of-russia-spy-agencies-gru |url-status=live }}{{cite news |last1=AFP |title=Russian military intelligence's embarrassing blunders |url=https://www.france24.com/en/20181005-russian-military-intelligences-embarrassing-blunders |access-date=29 August 2023 |agency=France 24 |date=5 October 2018 |archive-date=29 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230829122735/https://www.france24.com/en/20181005-russian-military-intelligences-embarrassing-blunders |url-status=live }} It was allegedly organised by the secret Unit 29155 of the Russian GRU, under the command of Major General Andrei V. Averyanov.{{cite news |last1=Sébastian |first1=Seibt |title=Unit 29155, the Russian spies specialising in 'sabotage and assassinations' |url=https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20210420-unit-29155-the-russian-spies-specialising-in-sabotage-and-assassinations |access-date=26 August 2023 |agency=France 24 |date=20 April 2021 |archive-date=26 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230826100329/https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20210420-unit-29155-the-russian-spies-specialising-in-sabotage-and-assassinations |url-status=live }}

President Donald Trump announced on 20 October 2018 that he was withdrawing the US from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty due to Russian non-compliance,{{cite web|url= https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/20/trump-us-nuclear-arms-treaty-russia|title=Trump says US will withdraw from nuclear arms treaty with Russia|last= Pengelly|first=Martin|date=20 October 2018|website=The Guardian |access-date=20 October 2018}}{{Cite web |title=What the INF Treaty's Collapse Means for Nuclear Proliferation |url=https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/what-inf-treatys-collapse-means-nuclear-proliferation |access-date=2023-07-22 |website=Council on Foreign Relations |language=en}} stating that Russia had breached the treaty by developing and deploying an intermediate-range cruise missile known as the SSC-8 (Novator 9M729).{{Cite web |title=9M729 (SSC-8) |url=https://missilethreat.csis.org/missile/ssc-8-novator-9m729/ |access-date=2023-07-22 |website=Missile Threat |language=en-US}}{{cite news |last1=Borger |first1=Julian |title=US Nato envoy's threat to Russia: stop developing missile or we'll 'take it out' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/02/us-ambassador-nato-russia-kay-bailey-hutchison |publisher=Guardian News & Media Limited |date=2 October 2018}} The Trump administration claimed another reason for the withdrawal was to counter a Chinese arms buildup in the Pacific, including within the South China Sea, as China was not a signatory to the treaty.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/19/us/politics/russia-nuclear-arms-treaty-trump-administration.html|title=U.S. to Tell Russia It Is Leaving Landmark I.N.F. Treaty|last1=Sanger|first1=David E.|last2=Broad|first2=William J.|date=October 19, 2019|access-date=May 21, 2020|newspaper=The New York Times}}{{cite web | url =https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45930206 |title=President Trump to pull US from Russia missile treaty|publisher=BBC| date=20 October 2018| access-date =20 October 2018}}{{cite news |title=Trump: U.S. to exit nuclear treaty, citing Russian violations |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-nuclear-trump/trump-u-s-to-exit-nuclear-treaty-citing-russian-violations-idUSKCN1MU0Z8|publisher=Reuters|date=October 20, 2019}} The US formally suspended the treaty on 1 February 2019,{{cite news|url=https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/01/politics/us-russia-nuclear-arms-treaty-pompeo/index.html|title=Pompeo announces suspension of nuclear arms treaty|access-date=1 February 2019|website=CNN}} and Russia did so on the following day in response.[https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/INFtreaty The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty at a Glance], Arms Control Association, August 2019. The United States formally withdrew from the treaty on 2 August 2019.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49198565|title=INF nuclear treaty: US pulls out of Cold War-era pact with Russia|work=BBC News|date= 2 August 2019|access-date=2 August 2019}}

In April 2019, NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg warned a joint session of the U.S. Congress of the threat posed by "a more assertive" Russia to the alliances members, which included a massive military buildup, threats to sovereign states, the use of nerve agents and cyberattacks.{{cite news|date=3 April 2019|title=NATO chief warns of Russia threat, urges unity in U.S. address|work=Reuters|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-nato/nato-chief-warns-of-russia-threat-urges-unity-in-u-s-address-idUSKCN1RF22L}}{{cite news |title=NATO chief calls for confronting Russia in speech to Congress |url=https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/03/nato-secretary-general-russia-congress-1252838 |work=Politico |date=3 April 2019}}

On 23 August 2019, another extrajudicial assassination was performed by Russian intelligence on NATO territory. At around midday in the Kleiner Tiergarten park in Berlin, Germany, Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, an ethnic Chechen Georgian who was a former platoon commander for the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria during the Second Chechen War, and a Georgian military officer during the 2008 Russo-Georgian War, was walking down a wooded path on his way back from the mosque he attended when he was shot three times—once in the shoulder and twice in the head—by a Russian assassin on a bike with a suppressed Glock 26. The bicycle, a plastic bag with the murder weapon, and a wig the perpetrator was using were dumped into the Spree.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2019/08/30/suspected-assassin-in-the-berlin-killing-used-fake-identity-documents/|title=Suspected Assassin In The Berlin Killing Used Fake Identity Documents|date=2019-08-30|access-date=2021-12-22|website=Bellingcat|language=en}} The suspect, identified as 56-year-old Russian national "Vadim Sokolov" by German police, was apprehended soon after the assassination.{{Cite web|url=https://www.rferl.org/a/chechen-commander-khangoshvili-berlin-assassination-moscow-(and-grozny)/30133813.html|title=Former Chechen Commander Gunned Down In Berlin; Eyes Turn To Moscow (And Grozny)|last=Eckel|first=Mike|date=28 August 2019|publisher=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191025183024/https://www.rferl.org/a/chechen-commander-khangoshvili-berlin-assassination-moscow-(and-grozny)/30133813.html|archive-date=25 October 2019|access-date=17 September 2019}}{{Cite web|date=2021-12-15|title=Germany expels Russian diplomats over state-ordered killing|url=https://apnews.com/article/europe-russia-germany-foreign-policy-moscow-00406c5409443089310c725441d30915|access-date=2021-12-15|website=AP NEWS|language=en}} The Russian government and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov have both been linked to the killing.{{cite news |title=Chechen leader 'was behind Berlin assassination' of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/chechen-leader-was-behind-berlin-assassination-of-zelimkhan-khangoshvili-v3wgb77hl|work=The Times |date=6 December 2019}}{{Cite web |url=https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2019/09/27/new-evidence-links-russian-state-to-berlin-assassination/|title=New Evidence Links Russian State to Berlin Assassination |date=27 September 2019 |website=Bellingcat |access-date=26 October 2019}}

In September 2019, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that "NATO approaching our borders is a threat to Russia."{{cite news |title=Lavrov: If Georgia Joins NATO, Relations Will Be Spoiled |url=http://georgiatoday.ge/news/17482/Lavrov%3A-If-Georgia-Joins-NATO%2C-Relations-Will-Be-Spoiled |work=Georgia Today |date=26 September 2019}} He was quoted as saying that if NATO accepts Georgian membership with the article on collective defense covering only Tbilisi-administered territory (i.e., excluding the Georgian territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, both of which are currently unrecognized breakaway republics supported by Russia), "we will not start a war, but such conduct will undermine our relations with NATO and with countries who are eager to enter the alliance."{{cite web|url=https://agenda.ge/en/news/2019/2582 |title=Russian FM Lavrov supports resumption of flights to Georgia as Georgians 'realised consequences' of June 20 |publisher=Agenda.ge |date=2019-09-26 |access-date=2019-09-29}}

{{further|Russian opposition to Ukrainian NATO membership}}

{{main|Prelude to the Russian invasion of Ukraine}}

From March 2021, there was a massive Russian military buildup near Ukraine's borders. On 13 April, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called on Russia to halt its military buildup.{{Cite news|last1=Sabbagh|first1=Dan|last2=Roth|first2=Andrew|date=13 April 2021|title=Nato tells Russia to stop military buildup around Ukraine|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/13/nato-tells-russia-to-stop-military-buildup-around-ukraine|access-date=14 April 2021}}{{Cite news|date=13 April 2021|title=NATO warns Russia over forces near Ukraine|work=Al Jazeera|url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/13/russia-must-end-military-build-up-on-ukraines-borders-nato-says|access-date=14 April 2021}} Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu said that Russia has deployed troops to its western borders for "combat training exercises" in response to NATO "military activities that threaten Russia."{{cite news |title=Germany Says Russia Seeking To 'Provoke' With Troop Buildup At Ukraine's Border |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-ukraine-military-germany-nato/31203229.html |work=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |date=14 April 2021}} Defender-Europe 21, one of the largest NATO-led military exercises in Europe in decades, began in mid-March 2021 and lasted until June 2021. It included "nearly simultaneous operations across more than 30 training areas" in Estonia, Bulgaria, Romania and other countries.{{cite news |title=Massive, Army-led NATO exercise Defender Europe kicks off |url=https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2021/03/15/massive-army-led-nato-exercise-defender-europe-kicks-off/ |work=Army Times |date=15 March 2021}}

On 6 October 2021, NATO decided to expel eight Russian diplomats, described as "undeclared intelligence officers", and halve the size of Russia's mission to the alliance in response to suspected malign activities.The eight diplomats were expected to leave Brussels, where the alliance is headquartered, by the end of October and their positions scrapped. Two other positions that are currently vacant were also abolished. This reduced the size of the Russian mission to NATO in the Belgian capital to 10.{{cite web|url=https://news.sky.com/story/nato-halves-size-of-russian-mission-in-response-to-suspected-killings-and-espionage-in-member-states-12427481|title = NATO expels eight Russian 'undeclared intelligence officers' in response to suspected killings and espionage}} On 18 October 2021, Russia suspended its mission to NATO and ordered the closure of NATO's office in Moscow in retaliation for NATO's expulsion of Russian diplomats.

File:Deputy Secretary Sherman Meets With the NATO-Russia Council (51815888987).jpg]]

In November 2021, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that if a NATO missile defense shield was ever deployed in Ukraine, it would be crossing a red line. He said that Aegis Ashore missile interceptors, like those based in Romania and Poland, could be secretly converted to launch Tomahawk missiles that could reach Moscow within minutes. However, there were no such plans to deploy a missile shield in Ukraine.{{cite news |title=Russia will act if Nato countries cross Ukraine 'red lines', Putin says |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/30/russia-will-act-if-nato-countries-cross-ukraine-red-lines-putin-says |work=The Guardian |date=30 November 2021}}{{cite news |title=NATO Pushes Back Against Russian President Putin's 'Red Lines' Over Ukraine |url=https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/43334/nato-pushes-back-against-russian-president-putins-red-lines-over-ukraine |work=The Drive |date=1 December 2021}}{{cite news |title=Putin warns Russia will act if NATO crosses its red lines in Ukraine |url=https://www.reuters.com/markets/stocks/putin-warns-russia-will-act-if-nato-crosses-its-red-lines-ukraine-2021-11-30/ |work=Reuters |date=30 November 2021}} The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, replied "it's Russia that has developed ground-launched, intermediate-range missiles that can reach Germany and nearly all NATO European territory, despite Russia being a party to the INF Treaty that prohibited these missiles". He added that "Russia's violation led to the termination of that treaty" by the first Trump administration.{{cite web |last1=Blinken |first1=Antony |title=Speech: The Stakes of Russian Aggression for Ukraine and Beyond |url=https://www.state.gov/the-stakes-of-russian-aggression-for-ukraine-and-beyond/ |publisher=US Department of State |date=20 January 2022}}

Putin asked U.S. President Joe Biden for legal guarantees that NATO never let Ukraine join or put "weapons systems that threaten us in close vicinity to Russian territory."{{cite news |title=Putin Demands NATO Guarantees Not to Expand Eastward |url=https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2021-12-01/russia-says-its-worried-about-ukrainian-military-buildup |work=U.S. News & World Report |date=1 December 2021}} NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg replied that "It's only Ukraine and 30 NATO allies that decide when Ukraine is ready to join NATO. Russia has no veto, Russia has no say, and Russia has no right to establish a sphere of influence to try to control their neighbors."{{cite news |title=NATO chief: "Russia has no right to establish a sphere of influence" |url=https://www.axios.com/nato-russia-ukraine-invasion-18619fd7-be80-4d37-86f8-fcebcb1fbe8a.html |work=Axios |date=1 December 2021}}{{cite news |title=Is Russia preparing to invade Ukraine? And other questions |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56720589 |work=BBC News |date=10 December 2021}}

In December 2021, the Russian government demanded NATO end all activity in its Eastern European member states and ban Ukraine or any former Soviet state from ever joining NATO, among other demands.{{Cite news|last1=Tétrault-Farber|first1=Gabrielle|last2=Balmforth|first2=Tom|date=2021-12-17|title=Russia demands NATO roll back from East Europe and stay out of Ukraine|language=en|work=Reuters|url=https://www.reuters.com/world/russia-unveils-security-guarantees-says-western-response-not-encouraging-2021-12-17/|access-date=2021-12-20}} Some of the demands had already been ruled-out by NATO. A senior Biden administration official said the US was willing to discuss the proposals, but added that there were some "that the Russians know are unacceptable".{{Cite news|title=U.S. to consider Russia's NATO proposal, but calls some demands "unacceptable"|url=https://www.axios.com/russia-nato-ukraine-invasion-a94b07bc-1e88-4e77-901f-b0133623bda6.html|work=Axios|date=17 December 2021}} Several Western political analysts suggested Russia was making unrealistic demands as a "smokescreen", knowing they would be rejected; giving Russia a pretext for military action.{{cite web |last1=Pifer |first1=Steven |title=Russia's draft agreements with NATO and the United States: Intended for rejection? |url=https://www.brookings.edu/articles/russias-draft-agreements-with-nato-and-the-united-states-intended-for-rejection/ |website=Brookings Institution |date=21 December 2021}} Others suggested that Putin was "aiming high to squeeze concessions" out of NATO.{{cite news |title=Ukraine crisis: Why Russia-US talks may prove crucial |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59935990 |work=BBC News |date=10 January 2022}} Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned "If there is no constructive response within a reasonable time and the West continues its aggressive line, then Russia will be forced to [...] eliminate unacceptable threats to our security".{{cite news |title=Russian foreign minister warns west over 'aggressive line' in Ukraine crisis |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/31/russian-foreign-minister-warns-west-us-ukraine-border-crisis |work=The Guardian |date=31 December 2021}}

File:NATO 32 members.png (red), {{as of|lc=y|2024}}]]

On 12 January 2022, the NATO-Russia Council met at NATO's HQ in Brussels for the final time to discuss Russia's recent military build-up near its border with Ukraine and Russia's demands. The respective delegations were led by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, Wendy Sherman and NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Alexander Grushko and Russian Deputy Defence Minister, Colonel General Alexander Fomin.{{cite web |title=Russia-NATO Council ends Brussels meeting that lasted four hours |url=https://tass.com/politics/1386919 |access-date=2022-01-13 |agency=TASS}}{{Cite news |last1=Emmott |first1=Robin |last2=Siebold |first2=Sabine |last3=Baczynska |first3=Gabriela |date=2022-01-12 |title=NATO offers arms talks as Russia warns of dangers |language=en |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-set-out-security-demands-nato-meeting-2022-01-12/ |access-date=2022-01-13}}

NATO rejected Russia's main demands on 25 January, saying they would go against its "open-door policy" and the right of countries to choose their own security. NATO offered to improve communication with Russia, and to negotiate limits on missile placements and military exercises, as long as Russia withdrew troops from Ukraine's borders.{{cite news |title=US offers no concessions in response to Russia on Ukraine |url=https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-europe-russia-united-states-moscow-72856781c3b92640d03c5e954488ba90 |work=Associated Press |date=26 January 2022}} Russia did not withdraw troops. Despite Russia's announcement on 16 February 2022, that military training in Moscow-annexed Crimea had stopped and Russia announced soldiers returning to their posts, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said it appeared that Russia was continuing its military build-up.{{cite news |title=NATO says Russia appears to be continuing military escalation in Ukraine |url=https://www.france24.com/en/video/20220216-ukraine-crisis |access-date=16 February 2022 |work=France 24 |agency=France 24 |date=16 February 2022}}

In his speech on 21 February 2022, Putin warned that NATO would use Ukraine to launch a surprise attack on Russia.{{Cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/extracts-putins-speech-ukraine-2022-02-21/|title = Extracts from Putin's speech on Ukraine|work = Reuters|date = 21 February 2022 |url-access=registration |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20231202132403/https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/extracts-putins-speech-ukraine-2022-02-21/ |archive-date=2 December 2023}}

On 24 February 2022, during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council which was summoned to discuss the ongoing crisis and was presided over by Russia at the time, Putin ordered the Russian military to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It was the largest military attack on a European state since World War II, and further worsened relations between NATO and Russia. In his announcement, Putin falsely claimed that NATO was building up its military infrastructure in Ukraine and threatening Russia, forcing Russia to invade. Because of the invasion, the NATO Response Force deployed troops in Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria.{{Cite web |last2= |date=23 March 2022 |title=NATO leaders will boost 4 new battalions in the east in the face of Russian threat |url=https://www.infobae.com/en/2022/03/23/nato-leaders-will-boost-4-new-battalions-in-the-east-in-the-face-of-russian-threat/ |access-date= |website=Infobae |language=en}}

Russia's invasion also spurred Finland and Sweden to announce plans to seek NATO membership. On 26 February 2022, Russia issued threats to Finland and Sweden in response.{{cite web |url = https://www.yenisafak.com/dunya/rusyadan-isvec-ve-finlandiyaya-tehdit-3756853|title = Rusya'dan İsveç ve Finlandiya'ya tehdit |language=tr|date = February 26, 2022 |work = www.yenisafak.com }}

On 16 May 2022, a day after the countries applied for membership, during a summit of the CSTO, which is the NATO's counterpart, Vladimir Putin said:

{{Blockquote|text=Russia has no problems with these states [Sweden and Finland], and therefore in this sense the expansion [of NATO] at the expense of these countries does not create a direct threat [...] but the expansion of military infrastructure in this region will certainly cause our response.|author=Vladimir Putin{{Cite web|date=16 May 2022|title=Путин заявил, что вступление Финляндии и Швеции в НАТО не создает угрозы|url= https://www.rbc.ru/politics/16/05/2022/62823ce19a794708d0996d8a |access-date=7 November 2022|website=RBC|language=ru}}}}

The 2022 NATO Madrid summit declared Russia "a direct threat" to Euro–Atlantic security and approved an increase in the NATO Response Force to 300,000 troops, while the Founding Act had been thereafter considered by NATO member states as definitively abrogated in its entirety by Russia.{{Cite news |date=30 June 2022 |title=NATO brands Russia the biggest 'direct threat' to Western security, as it eyes off 'serious challenges' posed by China |language=en-AU |work=ABC News |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-30/nato-spain-russia-china-security-threat-war-in-ukraine/101196134}}{{cite web |url=https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_50091.htm |access-date=2025-02-02 |title=NATO-Russia Council |website=Topics |publisher=NATO |date=25 July 2024}}{{Cite journal |url=https://ojs.cbuic.cz/index.php/pss/article/view/305/657 |title=Why Nato-Russia Council Has Failed After 20 Years of Existence|first=Raluca Iulia|last=Iulian|date=1 December 2022 |journal=Proceedings of CBU in Social Sciences|volume=3 |pages=57–63|via=ojs.cbuic.cz|doi=10.12955/pss.v3.305|doi-access=free}} Meanwhile, since the beginning of the war, Russian officials and propagandists have increasingly said that they are "at war" with the whole of NATO as well as the West, a statement the organization and its member states (including the U.S.) has repeatedly denied.

Multiple scholars and journalists speculated that the invasion of Ukraine likely marked the beginning of a Second Cold War between NATO and Russia.{{Cite web |last=Hirsh |first=Michael |date=27 June 2022 |title=We Are Now in a Global Cold War |website=Foreign Policy |language=en-US |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/06/27/new-cold-war-nato-summit-united-states-russia-ukraine-china/}}{{Cite web |last1=Kanta Ray |first1=Rajat |last2=Guha |first2=Dipanjan |title=The second Cold War: Editorial on Russia's Ukraine invasion |url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/the-second-cold-war-editorial-on-russias-ukraine-invasion/cid/1863327 |date=2022-05-03 |website=The Telegraph}} An article published by the Institute for the Study of War concluded:{{blockquote|Putin didn't invade Ukraine in 2022 because he feared NATO. He invaded because he believed that NATO was weak, that his efforts to regain control of Ukraine by other means had failed, and that installing a pro-Russian government in Kyiv would be safe and easy. His aim was not to defend Russia against some non-existent threat but rather to expand Russia's power, eradicate Ukraine's statehood, and destroy NATO.{{cite web |title=Weakness is Lethal: Why Putin Invaded Ukraine and How the War Must End |website=Institute for the Study of War |date=1 October 2023 |url=https://understandingwar.org/backgrounder/weakness-lethal-why-putin-invaded-ukraine-and-how-war-must-end}}}}

In December 2023, Putin declared creation of Leningrad Military District which he said was in response to Finland membership in NATO "causing problems". He also reiterated that Russia has no interest in attacking NATO countries.

Dmitry Medvedev, Putin's deputy on the Security Council of Russia, said in 2024 that "We must do everything so that Ukraine's 'irreversible path' to NATO ends with either the disappearance of Ukraine or the disappearance of NATO. Or even better - the disappearance of both".{{cite news |title=Former Russian president Medvedev says Moscow should seek 'disappearance' of Ukraine and NATO |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/former-russian-president-medvedev-says-moscow-should-seek-disappearance-ukraine-2024-07-11/ |work=Reuters |date=11 July 2024}}

On July 28, 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin threatens to deploy long-range missiles that could hit all of Europe, after the United States announced its intention to deploy long-range missiles in Germany from 2026.{{cite web |title=Putin warns the US of Cold War-style missile crisis |website=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/putin-warns-united-states-cold-war-style-missile-crisis-2024-07-28/ |date=28 July 2024}}

It was revealed in 2024 that American and German intelligence agents foiled a plan by Russian government to assassinate Armin Papperger, a German business executive, CEO of Rheinmetall AG, an automotive and arms manufacturer.{{Cite web |last1=Pleitgen |first1=Frederik |last2=Lillis |first2=Katie Bo |last3=Bertrand |first3=Natasha |date=2024-07-11 |title=Exclusive: US and Germany foiled Russian plot to assassinate CEO of arms manufacturer sending weapons to Ukraine {{!}} CNN Politics |url=https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/11/politics/us-germany-foiled-russian-assassination-plot/index.html |access-date=2024-07-11 |website=CNN |language=en}}{{Cite news |last=Connolly |first=Kate |date=2024-07-11 |title=US reportedly foiled Russian plot to kill boss of German arms firm supplying Ukraine |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/11/us-reportedly-foiled-russian-plot-to-kill-boss-of-german-arms-firm-supplying-ukraine |access-date=2024-07-11 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}

In October 2024, Mark Rutte emphasized the alliance's unwavering support for Ukraine during his visit to the Wiesbaden mission, which will oversee military aid coordination. He stated that NATO will not be intimidated by Russian threats and remains committed to ensuring Ukraine's defense.{{Cite news |last=Siebold |first= Sabine|date=2024-10-14 |title=NATO will not be intimidated by Russia's threats, Rutte says at Ukraine mission HQ |language=en |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/nato-will-not-be-intimidated-by-russias-threats-rutte-says-ukraine-mission-hq-2024-10-14/|access-date=2024-10-15}}

In 2024, a number of sabotage attacks were attributed to Russian special services that included posting incendiary bombs with delay fuzes over civilian courier services which resulted in fires in distribution centers in Germany and United Kingdom.{{Cite news |last1=Rothwell |first1=James |last2=Crisp |first2=James |date=2024-10-16 |title=Russia 'suspected of planting bomb' on plane to the UK |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/10/16/russia-suspected-of-planting-bomb-on-plane-to-the-uk/ |access-date=2024-10-16 |work=The Telegraph |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235}}{{Cite web |title=Suspected sabotage almost caused German plane crash, says spy chief |work=Financial Times |url=https://www.ft.com/content/b83353a7-bdf0-486b-8f12-d2834261d44f?sharetype=blocked |access-date=2024-10-16 |url-access=subscription}}{{Cite web |date=2024-09-03 |title=DHL confirms parcels linked to arson attack in Germany sent from Lithuania |url=https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-english/19/2352001/dhl-confirms-parcels-linked-to-arson-attack-in-germany-sent-from-lithuania |access-date=2024-10-16 |website=lrt.lt |language=en}} Victor Orban's government in Hungary has been highlighted as the primary "GRU hub" in Europe, facilitating entry of Russian operatives into EU and hosting an unproportionally large Russian diplomatic mission which had been suggested to compensate for diplomatic cover operatives expelled from other EU countries.{{Cite web |last=Panyi |first=Szabolcs |date=2024-10-15 |title=Russian Diplomats with GRU Ties: Hungary's Special Guests |url=https://vsquare.org/russian-diplomats-with-gru-ties-espionage-hungary-budapest/ |access-date=2024-10-22 |website=VSquare.org |language=en-US}} In October 2024 Poland Internal Security Agency (ABW) informed about 16 people charged with Russia-inspired sabotage and espionage and "increase" in 2024 with 20 more suspects in ongoing international investigations in cooperation with other countries' counterintelligence services.{{Cite web |last=Wewnętrznego |first=Agencja Bezpieczeństwa |title=Komunikat dotyczący działalności dywersyjnej FR |url=https://abw.gov.pl/pl/informacje/2569,Komunikat-dotyczacy-dzialalnosci-dywersyjnej-FR.html |access-date=2024-10-25 |website=Agencja Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego |language=pl}} Also in October 2024 a collective of investigative journalists Vsquare published an article describing operations of 390th Special Purpose Reconnaissance Point, a GRU sabotage unit targeted at NATO countries, in Parusnoye in Kaliningrad oblast'.{{Cite web |last=Gielewska |first=Anna |date=2024-10-30 |title=Mapping Russia's War Machine on NATO's Doorstep |url=https://vsquare.org/russia-military-bases-threat-europe-nato/ |access-date=2024-10-30 |website=VSquare.org |language=en-US}}

In April 2025, Russia's foreign intelligence chief, Sergey Naryshkin, issued a threat that Russia would attack NATO countries in the event of NATO "aggression" against Russia or Belarus. He warned that Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia would be "the first to suffer".{{cite news |title=Russian spy chief threatens Poland and Baltic States |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/4/15/russian-spy-chief-threatens-poland-and-baltic-states |work=Al Jazeera |date=15 April 2025}}

{{update section|date=January 2024}}

File:Vladimir Putin 28 May 2002-13.jpg]]

The idea of Russia becoming a NATO member has at different times been floated by both Western and Russian leaders, as well as some experts.Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Robert Coalson: [http://www.rferl.org/content/Could_NATO_Membership_For_Russia_Break_Impasse_In_European_Security_Debate/1949690.html Could NATO Membership For Russia Break Impasse In European Security Debate?], 5 February 2010. In February 1990, while negotiating German reunification at the end of the Cold War with U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev said that "You say that NATO is not directed against us, that it is simply a security structure that is adapting to new realities ... therefore, we propose to join NATO." However, Baker dismissed the possibility as a "dream".{{cite magazine|url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/russia-fsu/2014-08-11/broken-promise|title=A Broken Promise?|date=October 2014|access-date=2016-01-06|magazine=Foreign Affairs}} In 1991, as the Soviet Union was dissolved, Russian president Boris Yeltsin sent a letter to NATO, suggesting that Russia's long-term aim was to join NATO.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/21/world/soviet-disarray-yeltsin-says-russia-seeks-to-join-nato.html |title=SOVIET DISARRAY; Yeltsin Says Russia Seeks to Join NATO |newspaper=The New York Times |date=1991-12-21 |access-date=2022-03-21}} In 1993 former Secretary of State James Baker wrote an op-ed calling for NATO leaders to make a plan for including a "democratic Russia" in NATO, arguing that this could assist Russian democrats and that Russia could have a "constructive role in European security" through NATO.{{Cite news |last=Baker |first=James |date=5 December 1993 |title=Expanding to the East: A New NATO: Alliance: Full membership may be the most sought-after 'good' now enticing Eastern and Central European states--particularly, Russia |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-12-05-op-64339-story.html }}

In the mid-1990s the Russian senior military representative at the NATO military headquarters, Colonel General Leonty Shevtsov, was asked about the possibility of Russia joining NATO. He said it was unlikely in his view, because standardizing NATO and Russian equipment would be impractical. He added that "Russia is not one of these small central European countries with 15-20,000 personnel and 50 tanks, buying its equipment from other nations. Those countries NATO is capable of guiding, with advice and technical assistance, even re-equipping them. But Russia can provide its own equipment."{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Davis L. |title=European Collective Security in the Next Millennium |work=The Air Force Law Review, volume 42 |date=1997 |url=https://www.afjag.af.mil/Portals/77/documents/AFD-081204-037.pdf }}

During a series of interviews with filmmaker Oliver Stone, President Vladimir Putin told him that he floated the possibility of Russia joining NATO to President Bill Clinton when he visited Moscow in 2000.[http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/in-his-interview-with-oliver-stone-vladimir-putin-suggested-russia-joining-nato-to-bill-clinton/article18965562.ece Putin suggested Russia joining NATO to Clinton]. The Hindu. Published 12 June 2017. Retrieved 14 December 2017. Putin said in a BBC interview with David Frost just before Putin was inaugurated as President of Russia for the first time in 2000 that it was hard for him to visualize NATO as an enemy. "Russia is part of the European culture. And I cannot imagine my own country in isolation from Europe and what we often call the civilized world."{{Cite web |date=2021-11-04 |title=Ex-Nato head says Putin wanted to join alliance early on in his rule |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/04/ex-nato-head-says-putin-wanted-to-join-alliance-early-on-in-his-rule |access-date=2022-12-01 |website=The Guardian |language=en}} In 2000 Putin told George Robertson, the Secretary General of NATO at that time, that he wanted Russia to join NATO but would not like to go through the usual application process.{{Citation |title=Former Nato chief says Putin considered membership for Russia {{!}} BBC News |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VISG_lsrNMY |access-date=2024-02-23 |language=en}}{{cite news |title=Ex-Nato head says Putin wanted to join alliance early on in his rule |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/04/ex-nato-head-says-putin-wanted-to-join-alliance-early-on-in-his-rule |access-date=22 February 2024 |work=The Guardian |date=4 November 2021}} According to Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former Danish Prime Minister who served as NATO Secretary General from 2009 to 2014, in the early days of Putin's presidency around 2000–2001, Putin made many statements that suggested he was favorable to the idea of Russia joining NATO.{{cite magazine |title=Breaking Down the Complicated Relationship Between Russia and NATO |url=https://time.com/5564207/russia-nato-relationship/ |magazine=TIME |date=4 April 2019}}

On 7 October 2006, Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist[https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1263184/Anna-Politkovskaya Anna Politkovskaya] Encyclopædia Britannica who reported on political events in Russia; in particular, the Second Chechen War (1999–2005),World Politics Review, [http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/article.aspx?id=302 "Politkovskaya's Death, Other Killings, Raise Questions About Russian Democracy"], 31 October 2006 was murdered in the elevator of her block of flats, an assassination that attracted international attention.{{cite web|last=Gilman |first=Martin |url=http://www.moscowtimes.ru/article/600/42/378788.htm |title=Russia Leads Europe In Reporter Killings |work=Moscow Times |date=16 June 2009 |access-date=8 August 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090625134223/http://www.moscowtimes.ru/article/600/42/378788.htm|archive-date=25 June 2009 |url-status=dead}}[https://web.archive.org/web/20090902112934/http://thereport.amnesty.org/sites/report2009.amnesty.org/files/documents/air09-en.pdf The State of the World's Human Rights (Internet Archive)], Amnesty International 2009, Report on Jan–Dec 2008, p. 272: "In June [2008], the Office of the Prosecutor General announced that it had finished its investigation into the killing of human rights journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot dead in Moscow in October 2006. Three men accused of involvement in her murder went on trial in November; all denied the charges. A fourth detainee, a former member of the Federal Security Services who had initially been detained in connection with the murder, remained in detention on suspicion of another crime. The person suspected of shooting Anna Politkovskaya had not been detained by the end of the year and was believed to be in hiding abroad."{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6035133.stm|title=Anna Politkovskaya: Putin's Russia|work=BBC News|access-date=9 October 2006 |date=9 October 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061107104936/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6035133.stm|archive-date=7 November 2006 |url-status=live}} In response to a March 2009 suggestion by Polish foreign minister Radosław Sikorski that Russia join NATO, the Russian envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, stated that while Russia had not ruled it out as a future possibility, it instead preferred to keep practical limited cooperation with NATO. He emphasized that "Great powers don't join coalitions, they create coalitions. Russia considers itself a great power." However, he stated that Russia wanted to be NATO's "partner", provided that Georgia (with which Russia had a war the previous year) and Ukraine did not join the alliance.{{cite web|url=http://euobserver.com/13/27890|title=Russia does not rule out future NATO membership|publisher=EUobserver|last1=Pop|first1=Valentina|date=1 April 2009|access-date=2009-05-01}} In November 2009, Sergei Magnitsky, a Ukrainian-born Russian tax advisor responsible for exposing corruption and misconduct by Russian government officials while representing client Hermitage Capital Management, died.{{cite magazine | title=How Bill Browder Became Russia's Most Wanted Man|date=13 August 2018 | url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/08/20/how-bill-browder-became-russias-most-wanted-man|access-date=5 May 2019 | magazine=The New Yorker}} His arrest in 2008 and subsequent death after eleven months in police custody generated international attention and triggered both official and unofficial inquiries into allegations of fraud, theft and human rights violations in Russia.{{cite news | title=Russia 'is now a criminal state', says Bill Browder|date=23 November 2009 | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8372894.stm|access-date=27 December 2009 | publisher=BBC}}{{Cite book|title = Red Notice: How I Became Putin's No. 1 Enemy|last = Browder|first = Bill|publisher = Transworld Digital|year = 2015|isbn = 978-0593072950}}{{cite news|url=http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/2014/11/20/i-quaderni-del-carcere-di-chi-sfido-lo-zar-putin53.html|title=I quaderni del carcere di chi sfidò lo zar Putin|first=Nicola|last=Lombardozzi|newspaper=la Repubblica|date=20 November 2014|page=53|language=it}} His posthumous trial was the first in the Russian Federation. In spite of that, the suggestion of Russia joining NATO was repeated in an open letter co-written in early 2010 by some German defense experts. They posited that Russia was needed in the wake of an emerging multi-polar world in order for NATO to counterbalance emerging Asian powers.[http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,682287,00.html Ex-minister wants to bring Russia into NATO] Der Spiegel Retrieved on 9 March 2010 Meanwhile, the United States responded with adoption of the Magnitsky Act in 2012.

File:Russian-list-of-unfriendly-countries.svg". Countries and territories on the list imposed sanctions against Russia following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.{{cite news |title=Russia outlines plan for 'unfriendly' investors to sell up at half-price |url=https://www.reuters.com/business/russia-outlines-plan-unfriendly-investors-sell-up-half-price-2022-12-30/ |work=Reuters |date=30 December 2022}}]]

[[File:Countries supplying military equipment to Ukraine during the 2022 Russian invasion.svg|thumb|280px|{{legend|#800000|Russia}}

{{legend|#ffff00|Ukraine}}

{{legend|#000080|Countries sending lethal military equipment to Ukraine}}

{{legend|#2a7fffff|Countries sending non-lethal military aid to Ukraine}}

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Putin, however, later abandoned the ideas of the European integration and the Western democracy, turning instead to "Eurasia Movement"{{cite news|last1=Neyfakh|first1=Leon|title=Putin's long game? Meet the Eurasian Union|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2014/03/09/putin-long-game-meet-eurasian-union/1eKLXEC3TJfzqK54elX5fL/story.html|access-date=21 January 2015|newspaper=Boston Globe|date=9 March 2014}} and "Putinism" advertised as alternatives competing with the Western and European ideals espoused by many NATO countries.{{cite news|last1=Rohde|first1=David|last2=Mohammed|first2=Arshad|title=Special Report: How the U.S. made its Putin problem worse|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-putin-diplomacy-special-repor-idUSBREA3H0OQ20140418|access-date=20 December 2014|work=Reuters|date=18 April 2014}} Eurasia Movement is a Duginism-based neo-Eurasianist political movement, according to which Russia does not belong in the "European" or "Asian" categories but instead to the geopolitical concept of Eurasia dominated by the "Russian world/peace" ({{langx|ru|Русский мир}}), forming an ostensibly standalone Russian civilization which lost respect for the values and moral authority of the West, creating a "values gap" between Russia and the West.[https://web.archive.org/web/20120208203125/http://carnegieendowment.org/2007/03/01/russia-redefines-itself-and-its-relations-with-west/3lz "Russia Redefines Itself and Its Relations with the West"], by Dmitri Trenin, The Washington Quarterly, Spring 2007 Putin has promoted his brand of conservative Russian values, and has emphasized the importance of religion.{{cite news|last1=Buckley|first1=Neil|title=Putin urges Russians to return to values of religion|url=http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/cdedfd64-214f-11e3-a92a-00144feab7de.html#axzz3MhjQRmIS|access-date=23 December 2014|newspaper=Financial Times|date=19 September 2013}} Gay rights have divided Russia and many NATO countries, as the United States and some European countries have used their soft power to promote the protection of gay rights in Eastern Europe.{{cite magazine|last1=Hoare|first1=Liam|title=Europe's New Gay Cold War|url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2014/12/26/the_new_cold_war_is_being_fought_over_the_treatment_of_lgbtq_citizens.html|access-date=3 January 2015|magazine=Slate|date=26 December 2014}} Russia, on the other hand, has hindered the freedom of homosexuality and earned support from those opposed to gay marriage.{{cite news|last1=Herszenhorn|first1=David|title=Gays in Russia Find No Haven, Despite Support From the West|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/12/world/europe/gays-in-russia-find-no-haven-despite-support-from-the-west.html?pagewanted=all|access-date=23 December 2014|newspaper=The New York Times|date=11 August 2013}} Putinism in turn combines state capitalism with authoritarian nationalism.

Russia has started to fund international broadcasters such as RT, Rossiya Segodnya (including Sputnik), and TASS.{{cite news|last1=Matlack|first1=Carol|title=Does Russia's Global Media Empire Distort the News? You Be the Judge|url=http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-06-04/does-russias-global-media-empire-distort-the-news-you-be-the-judge|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140607032901/http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-06-04/does-russias-global-media-empire-distort-the-news-you-be-the-judge|url-status=dead|archive-date=7 June 2014|access-date=25 December 2014|publisher=Bloomberg|date=4 June 2014}} as well as several domestic media networks.{{cite magazine|last1=Spiegel Staff|title=The Opinion-Makers: How Russia Is Winning the Propaganda War|url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/russia-uses-state-television-to-sway-opinion-at-home-and-abroad-a-971971.html|access-date=25 December 2014|magazine=Der Spiegel|date=30 May 2014}}{{cite news|last1=Tetrault-Farber|first1=Gabrielle|title=Poll Finds 94% of Russians Depend on State TV for Ukraine Coverage|url=http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/poll-finds-94-of-russians-depend-on-state-tv-for-ukraine-coverage/499988.html|access-date=25 December 2014|newspaper=The Moscow Times|date=12 May 2014}} Russian media has been particularly critical of the United States.{{cite magazine|last1=Remnick|first1=David|title=Watching the Eclipse|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/08/11/watching-eclipse|access-date=2 January 2015|magazine=The New Yorker|date=11 August 2014}}{{cite news|last1=Kruscheva|first1=Nina|title=Putin's anti-American rhetoric now persuades his harshest critics|url=http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/07/29/putins-anti-american-rhetoric-now-persuades-his-harshest-critics/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140801145851/http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/07/29/putins-anti-american-rhetoric-now-persuades-his-harshest-critics/|url-status=dead|archive-date=1 August 2014|access-date=2 January 2015|work=Reuters|date=29 July 2014}} In 2014, Russia cut off Voice of America radio transmissions after Voice of America criticized Russia's actions in Ukraine.{{cite news|last1=Lally|first1=Kathy|title=Moscow turns off Voice of America radio|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/moscow-turns-off-voice-of-america-radio/2014/04/10/9c184fd8-8362-43fd-9dc0-26a80f849a0e_story.html|access-date=24 December 2015|newspaper=Washington Post|date=10 April 2014}} Russia's freedom of the press has received low scores in the Press Freedom Index of Reporters Without Borders, and Russia limits foreign ownership stakes of media organizations to no greater than 20%.{{cite news|title=A clampdown on foreign-owned media is an opportunity for some oligarchs|url=https://www.economist.com/news/business/21631057-clampdown-foreign-owned-media-opportunity-some-oligarchs-interesting-news|access-date=26 December 2014|newspaper=The Economist|date=8 November 2014}} In January 2015, the UK, Denmark, Lithuania and Estonia called on the European Union to jointly confront Russian propaganda by setting up a "permanent platform" to work with NATO in strategic communications and boost local Russian-language media.{{cite news|title=Four EU Countries Propose Steps to Counter Russia's Propaganda |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-16/four-eu-countries-propose-steps-to-counter-russia-s-propaganda.html|access-date=20 January 2015|publisher=Bloomberg|date=16 January 2015}} On 19 January 2015, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini said the EU planned to establish a Russia-language mass media body with a target Russian-speaking audience in Eastern Partnership countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, as well as in the European Union countries.{{cite news|title=Mogherini: EU may establish Russian-language media|url=http://itar-tass.com/en/world/772020|access-date=20 January 2015|agency=Reuters|date=19 January 2015}} In March 2016, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov admitted that Russia was at "information war" primarily with "Anglo-Saxon mass media".

On 27 February 2015, prominent leader of Russian democratic opposition Boris Nemtsov was murdered by receiving several shots from behind while crossing the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge in Moscow, close to the Kremlin walls and Red Square.{{efn|{{Coord|55.7495|37.62421}}}}{{cite news|last=Vasiliev|first=Nikita|date=28 February 2015|title=Круглосуточная камера зафиксировала убийство Немцова|trans-title=CCTV recorded murder of Nemtsov|url=http://www.tvc.ru/news/show/id/62541|language=ru|location=Moscow|access-date=25 June 2018|archive-date=13 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200813061549/http://www.tvc.ru/news/show/id/62541|url-status=live}} less than two days before he was due to take part in a peace rally against Russian involvement in the war in Ukraine and the financial crisis in Russia.{{cite news|last1=Amos|first1=Howard|last2=Millward|first2=David|title=Leading Putin critic gunned down outside Kremlin|work=The Telegraph|location=London|date=27 February 2015|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/11441466/Veteran-Russian-opposition-politician-shot-dead-in-Moscow.html|access-date=4 April 2018|archive-date=7 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191007071730/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/11441466/Veteran-Russian-opposition-politician-shot-dead-in-Moscow.html|url-status=live}}{{cite news|title=Russia opposition politician Boris Nemtsov shot dead|work=BBC News|date=27 February 2015|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31669061|access-date=28 February 2015|archive-date=17 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201017083251/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31669061|url-status=live}} Less than three weeks before his murder, on 10 February, Nemtsov wrote on Russia's Sobesednik news website that his 87-year-old mother was afraid Putin would kill him. He added that his mother was also afraid for former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny.{{cite news|title=Борис Немцов: Боюсь того, что Путин меня убьет|url=http://sobesednik.ru/politika/20150210-boris-nemcov-boyus-togo-chto-putin-menya-ubet|agency=Sobesednik|date=10 February 2015|access-date=2 March 2015|archive-date=16 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191016184329/https://sobesednik.ru/politika/20150210-boris-nemcov-boyus-togo-chto-putin-menya-ubet|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=Russia opposition politician Boris Nemtsov shot dead|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-31669061|date=27 February 2015|work=BBC News|access-date=30 April 2018|archive-date=23 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190623051053/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-31669061|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=Putin Critic Boris Nemtsov Shot Dead|url=http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/02/russian-opposition-leader-nemtsov-shot-dead-moscow-150227220848302.html|date=27 February 2015|access-date=1 March 2015|last=Calamur|first=Krishnadev

|publisher=NPR|archive-date=1 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150301041059/http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/02/russian-opposition-leader-nemtsov-shot-dead-moscow-150227220848302.html|url-status=live}} Russian journalist Ksenia Sobchak said that Nemtsov had been preparing a report proving the presence of Russian military in eastern Ukraine despite official denials.{{cite web|url=http://www.rosbalt.ru/moscow/2015/02/28/1372887.html|script-title=ru:Собчак: Немцов собирался опубликовать доклад об участии российских военных в войне на Украине|publisher=RosBalt|language=ru|date=28 February 2015|access-date=28 February 2015|archive-date=14 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181214123726/http://www.rosbalt.ru/moscow/2015/02/28/1372887.html|url-status=live}} The night after Nemtsov's murder, his papers, writings and computer hard drives were confiscated in a police search of his apartment on Malaya Ordynka street.{{cite news|script-title=ru:В квартире Немцова проводится обыск|language=ru|trans-title=A search is going on in Nemtsov's flat|publisher=RBK|location=Russia|date=28 February 2015|url=http://www.rbc.ru/rbcfreenews/54f1228e9a7947d2f285e4ed|access-date=28 February 2015|archive-date=2 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150302163548/http://www.rbc.ru/rbcfreenews/54f1228e9a7947d2f285e4ed|url-status=live}} BBC News quoted him saying: "If you support stopping Russia's war with Ukraine, if you support stopping Putin's aggression, come to the Spring March in Maryino on 1 March." Russian security services are believed to bear responsibility for the crime.Shaun Walker (8 March 2015) [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/08/boris-nemtsov-five-suspects-appear-in-court-over-opposition-leaders-killing Boris Nemtsov murder: Chechen chief Kadyrov confirms link to prime suspect] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200222150427/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/08/boris-nemtsov-five-suspects-appear-in-court-over-opposition-leaders-killing |date=22 February 2020 }} The Guardian According to Bellingcat analysis Nemtsov was followed prior to the assassination by the same FSB team that would subsequently follow Vladimir Kara-Murza, Dmitry Bykov and Alexei Navalny before their suspected poisonings.{{cite news |title=Boris Nemtsov Tailed by FSB Squad Prior to 2015 Murder |url=https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2022/03/28/boris-nemtsov-tailed-by-fsb-squad-prior-to-2015-murder/ |access-date=28 March 2022 |publisher=Bellingcat |date=28 March 2022}} Vladimir Milov, a former deputy minister of energy and fellow opposition figure, said: "There is ever less doubt that the state is behind the murder of Boris Nemtsov" and stated that the objective had been "to sow fear."{{cite news| last =Kramer| first =Andrew| title =Fear Envelops Russia After Killing of Putin Critic Boris Nemtsov| work =The New York Times| date =28 Feb 2015| url =https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/01/world/europe/killing-of-boris-nemtsov-putin-critic-breeds-fear-in-russia.html| access-date =21 February 2017| archive-date =7 March 2017| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20170307084805/https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/01/world/europe/killing-of-boris-nemtsov-putin-critic-breeds-fear-in-russia.html| url-status =live}} Opposition activist Maksim Kats held Putin responsible: "If he ordered it, then he's guilty as the orderer. And even if he didn't, then [he is responsible] as the inciter of hatred, hysteria, and anger among the people."{{cite news|last=Ioffe|first=Julia|title=After Boris Nemtsov's Assassination, 'There Are No Longer Any Limits'|work=The New York Times|date=28 February 2015|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/28/magazine/after-boris-nemtsovs-assassination-there-are-no-longer-any-limits.html?_r=0|access-date=21 February 2017|archive-date=13 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180613010437/https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/28/magazine/after-boris-nemtsovs-assassination-there-are-no-longer-any-limits.html?_r=0|url-status=live}}

Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in 2019 that "Once Russia can show it is upholding democracy and human rights, NATO can seriously consider its membership." In a 2019 interview with Time Magazine, Sergey Karaganov a close advisor to Putin, claimed that not inviting Russia to join NATO was "one of the worst mistakes in political history," "It automatically put Russia and the West on a collision course, eventually sacrificing Ukraine".{{cite magazine |title=Breaking Down the Complicated Relationship Between Russia and NATO |url=https://time.com/5564207/russia-nato-relationship/ |access-date=2022-03-05 |magazine=Time |language=en}} Kimberly Marten argued in 2020 that NATO's enlargement made it weaker, not stronger as Moscow feared. The bad relations that emerged after 2009 were mostly caused by Russian reaction to its declining influence in world affairs. Thirdly, Russia's strong negative reaction was manipulated and magnified by both nationalists and by Putin, as ammunition in their domestic political wars.Kimberly Marten, "NATO enlargement: evaluating its consequences in Russia." International Politics 57 (2020): 401-426.For similar critiques see James Goldgeier, and Joshua R. Itzkowitz Shifrinson, "Evaluating NATO enlargement: scholarly debates, policy implications, and roads not taken." International Politics 57 (2020): 291-321. Current Russian leaderships' views of world politics "are deeply rooted in realist approaches to international relations" and they perceive "a major external military risk in NATO’s bringing the military infrastructure of its member countries near the borders of the Russian Federation; likewise, with further [formal] expansion of the Alliance."{{cite web|last=Godzimirski|first=Jakub M.|author-link=Jakub M. Godzimirski|title=Explaining Russian reactions to increased NATO military presence|year=2019|work=Norsk Utenrikspolitisk Institutt|access-date=17 March 2022|url=https://nupi.brage.unit.no/nupi-xmlui/handle/11250/2651872}} This provides a threat-based legitimacy that allows them to consolidate their domestic position, implement harsh anti-democratic measures, and justify a military build-up and aggressive actions abroad. On November 4, 2021, George Robertson, a former UK Labour defence secretary who led NATO between 1999 and 2003, told The Guardian that Putin made it clear at their first meeting that he wanted Russia to be part of western Europe. "Putin said: ‘When are you going to invite us to join Nato?’...They wanted to be part of that secure, stable prosperous west that Russia was out of at the time," he said.

In 2022, Russia withdrew from the European Convention on Human Rights and was expelled from the Council of Europe altogether.

{{see also|Russia–European Union relations|Energy policy of Russia}}

Russia periodically blocked navigation via the Strait of Baltiysk in the 1990s. Since 2006 it has imposed a continuous blockade (both for Poland and the Russian Kaliningrad Oblast), despite entering in 2009 an international agreement concerning this matter.{{Cite web|url=https://isap.sejm.gov.pl/isap.nsf/DocDetails.xsp?id=WMP20090780975|title=Umowa między Rządem Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej i Rządem Federacji Rosyjskiej o żegludze po Zalewie Wiślanym (Kaliningradskij zaliw), podpisana w Sopocie dnia 1 września 2009 r.|website=isap.sejm.gov.pl}} As a result, Poland started to consider digging another canal across the Vistula Spit in order to circumvent this restriction,{{Cite web|url=http://zalew.turinfo.pl/p/ak_id,23103,,zalew_wislany,mierzeja_wislana,ciesnina_pilawska,elblag,braniewo,frombork.html|title=Co zmieni kanał na Mierzei Wiślanej?|date=24 February 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070224075427/http://zalew.turinfo.pl/p/ak_id,23103,,zalew_wislany,mierzeja_wislana,ciesnina_pilawska,elblag,braniewo,frombork.html |archive-date=24 February 2007 }} and ultimately built the Vistula Spit canal in 2019–2022.

The Russian economy is heavily dependent on the export of natural resources such as oil and natural gas, and Russia has used these resources to its advantage. Russia and the western countries signed in 1991 the Energy Charter Treaty establishing a multilateral framework for cross-border cooperation in the energy industry, principally the fossil fuel industry; Russia, however, postponed its ratification, linking it to the adoption of the Energy Charter Treaty Transit Protocol. Starting in 2005, Russia and Ukraine had several disputes in which Russia threatened to cut off the supply of gas. As a great deal of Russia's gas is exported to Europe through the pipelines crossing Ukraine, those disputes affected several NATO countries. While Russia claimed the disputes had arisen from Ukraine's failure to pay its bills, Russia may also have been motivated by a desire to punish the pro-Western government that came to power after the Orange Revolution.{{cite news|title = Russia's State-Controlled Gas Firm Announces Plan to Double Price for Georgia|newspaper = Washington Post|date = 2007-11-03|url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/02/AR2006110201520.html|access-date= 2014-12-25|first=Peter|last=Finn}} In December 2006, Russia indicated that the ratification of the Energy Charter Treaty was unlikely due to the provisions requiring third-party access to Russia's pipelines.[http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/12/news/energy.php Russia gets tough on energy sales to Europe: No foreign access to pipelines, official says], by Judy Dempsey, International Herald Tribune 12 December 2006 On 20 August 2009, Russia officially informed the depository of the Energy Charter Treaty (the Government of Portugal) that it did not intend to become a contracting party to the treaty.{{cite web |work=Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom |title=Arbitration Panel Holds That the 1994 Energy Charter Treaty Protects Foreign Energy Sector Investments in Former Soviet Union |date=5 February 2010 | url= https://www.skadden.com/insights/arbitration-panel-holds-1994-energy-charter-treaty-protects-foreign-energy-sector-investmen |access-date=8 May 2010 |url-status= live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716080855/https://www.skadden.com/content/Publications/Publications1978_0.pdf |archive-date=16 July 2011 }} Russian gas exports came to be viewed as a weapon against NATO countries,{{Cite news|title =Putin's 'Last and Best Weapon' Against Europe: Gas |date = 2014-09-24|url=http://www.newsweek.com/2014/10/03/putins-last-and-best-weapon-against-europe-gas-272652.html |access-date= 2015-01-03}} and the US and other Western countries have worked to lessen the dependency of Europe on Russia and its resources.{{cite news|last1=Klapper|first1=Bradley|title=New Cold War: US, Russia fight over Europe's energy future|url=https://news.yahoo.com/cold-war-us-russia-fight-191709484.html|access-date=12 February 2015|publisher=Yahoo|date=3 February 2015}}

In 1998, Russia joined the G8, a forum of eight large developed countries, six of which are members of NATO, until being expelled in 2014. In 2012, Russia joined the World Trade Organization, an organization of governments committed to reducing tariffs and other trade barriers. These increased economic ties gave Russia access to new markets and capital, as well as political clout in the West and other countries. While Russia's new role in the global economy presented Russia with several opportunities, it also made the Russian Federation more vulnerable to external economic trends and pressures. Like many other countries, Russia's economy suffered during the Great Recession.{{cite news|last1=Stewart|first1=James|title=Why Russia Can't Afford Another Cold War|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/08/business/why-russia-cant-afford-another-cold-war.html|access-date=3 January 2015|newspaper=The New York Times|date=7 March 2014}}

Following its annexation of Crimea, several countries (including most of NATO) imposed sanctions on Russia, hurting the Russian economy by cutting off access to capital. As a further consequence, Russia has also been expelled from the G8.{{cite web|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-companies-clamor-for-dollars-to-repay-debt-1412860551|title=Russian Companies Clamor for Dollars to Repay Debt|first1=Chiara|last1=Albanese|first2=Ben|last2=Edwards|date=9 October 2014|access-date=16 December 2014|work=The Wall Street Journal}} At the same time, the global price of oil declined.{{cite news|last1=Chung|first1=Frank|title=The Cold War is back, and colder|url=http://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/the-cold-war-is-back-and-colder/story-e6frflo9-1227159436375|access-date=17 December 2014|publisher=News.au|date=18 December 2014|archive-date=14 August 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150814142811/http://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/the-cold-war-is-back-and-colder/story-e6frflo9-1227159436375|url-status=dead}} The combination of international sanctions and the falling crude price in 2014 and thereafter resulted in the 2014–16 Russian financial crisis. Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, NATO members imposed further sanctions against Russia. Russia retaliated by placing member states of NATO (except Turkey) on a list of "unfriendly countries" along with other Western states.

{{Div col|colwidth=14em}}

• {{flagicon|Albania}} Albania
• {{flagicon|Belgium}} Belgium
• {{flagicon|Bulgaria}} Bulgaria
• {{flagicon|Canada}} Canada
• {{flagicon|Croatia}} Croatia
• {{flagicon|Czech Republic}} Czech Republic
• {{flagicon|Denmark}} Denmark
• {{flagicon|Estonia}} Estonia
• {{flagicon|Finland}} Finland
• {{flagicon|France}} France
• {{flagicon|Germany}} Germany
• {{flagicon|Greece}} Greece
• {{flagicon|Hungary}} Hungary
• {{flagicon|Iceland}} Iceland
• {{flagicon|Italy}} Italy
• {{flagicon|Latvia}} Latvia
• {{flagicon|Lithuania}} Lithuania
• {{flagicon|Luxembourg}} Luxembourg
• {{flagicon|Montenegro}} Montenegro
• {{flagicon|Netherlands}} Netherlands
• {{flagicon|North Macedonia}} North Macedonia
• {{flagicon|Norway}} Norway
• {{flagicon|Poland}} Poland
• {{flagicon|Portugal}} Portugal
• {{flagicon|Romania}} Romania
• {{flagicon|Slovakia}} Slovakia
• {{flagicon|Slovenia}} Slovenia
• {{flagicon|Spain}} Spain
• {{flagicon|Sweden}} Sweden
• {{flagicon|Turkey}} Turkey
• {{flagicon|United Kingdom}} United Kingdom
• {{flagicon|United States}} United States

{{div col end}}

• Foreign relations of Russia
• Foreign relations of NATO
• Enlargement of NATO
• NATO open door policy
• Armenia–NATO relations
• Belarus–NATO relations
• Georgia–NATO relations
• Moldova–NATO relations
• Ukraine–NATO relations
• Finland–NATO relations
• Sweden–NATO relations
• Russia–Ukraine relations
• Russia–United States relations
• Russian invasion of Ukraine
• Russia–European Union relations
• Ukraine–Commonwealth of Independent States relations

{{notelist}}

{{reflist|refs=

{{cite web | title= NATO–Russia Council Statement 28 May 2002 | website= NATO |date = 2002-05-28 | url = https://archives.nato.int/uploads/r/null/1/4/145410/STATEMENT_2002-05-28_BIL.pdf | access-date = 2022-02-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220203183401/https://archives.nato.int/uploads/r/null/1/4/145410/STATEMENT_2002-05-28_BIL.pdf |archive-date= 2022-02-03 |url-status=live }}

}}

{{refbegin|40em}}

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{{refend}}

{{wikiquote}}

{{commons category|Relations of NATO and Russia}}

• {{in lang|en|ru|fr}} [http://www.nato.int/nrc-website/en/about/index.html NATO-Russia council]
• {{in lang|en|ru|fr|uk}} [http://www.nato.int/issues/nato-russia/ NATO-Russia relations]

{{Foreign relations of Russia|Multilateral}}

{{NATO relations}}

{{Russia–United States relations}}

{{2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine}}

{{Cold War}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:NATO-Russia relations}}

Category:Multilateral relations of Russia

Category:1991 establishments in Europe

Category:Russia-centric

Category:Russia–United States relations