NATO-Russia: the relationship in pictures

Back at the centre of the world stage. Russia hosted the most expensive Olympic Games ever in Sochi. During the games, President Putin held a meeting with neighbouring President Yanukovych. Before the end of the games, Yanukovych had been deposed. © Reuters

While he was Russian President in November 2011, Dmitry Medvedev said that Russia reserved the right to position Iskander missiles (pictured) in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad if changes were not made to the NATO missile defence system.

NATO and Russia have worked together to confront a common threat - bombing of innocent commuters on mass transit systems. The detection technology - named STANDEX - can identify if explosives are being carried on someone's person. © Reuters

Ukraine - and the tumultuous events there in February 2014 - drew out major differences in perspectives between NATO and EU countries and Russia. The conflict was often portrayed - simplistically - as deciding whether Ukraine would move closer to Europe or to Russia. © Reuters

But, again, less publicly, Russia and NATO have worked together to set up and fund a programme which helps train helicopter maintenance in Afghanistan. This is key as Afghanistan has some of the most challenging conditions for helicopters (eg snow, dust, mountainous terrain, etc) and so maintenance will be key to keeping the choppers in the air. © NATO-Russia Council

Missile defence appears to be the main area where Russia and NATO cannot seem to speak the same language. While Russia demands cooperation, NATO says it has offered it. While Russia demands legal guarantees about not being targeted, NATO says that political guarantees have been given. The story continues.

But, again, behind the scenes, Russia and NATO are working on a joint programme to clean up the Baltic Sea. The seabed is littered with ammunition that has not been disposed of properly and could form a threat. Together, the two sides are working on a major operation to neutralize the threat.

The civil war in Syria is another area where Russia has taken a very different approach to Western countries. While preparations were made by countries like the US and France to carry out air strikes after the use of chemical weapons, Russia has said nothing must be done outside of international law. Syria has a Russian naval base on its coastline and is a major arms customer for Russia. © Reuters

However, where collaboration has broken out between the West and Russia is in jointly arranging to rid Syria of its chemical weapon stockpile.