History of Nato-Russia relations

Relations between Nato and its former cold war foe Russia have been difficult and often strained since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of its equivalent Warsaw Pact military alliance in 1991.

Below are some key bones of contention:

Russia described as "an historic error" Nato's eastern enlargement, but effectively gave a reluctant green light when on May 27, 1997, it signed the Founding Act, a treaty with Nato countries recognising post-cold war borders. On March 12, 1999 Nato admitted three former Warsaw Pact countries - the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. Moscow then warned Nato against admitting a former Soviet republic. Nevertheless, on March 29, 2004, Nato opened its doors to the three Baltic former Soviet republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

In 1998, Moscow, the traditional ally of Serbia, threatened "a return of the cold war" if Nato forced the Serbs to withdraw from the mainly ethnic-Albanian province of Kosovo. On March 26, 1999, two days after Nato's first air strikes, Russia froze military cooperation. Tensions resurfaced on Kosovo's February 17, 2008, declaration of independence, with Moscow denouncing a "precedent" encouraged by the West to change international borders unilaterally.