After the 9/11 attacks , Putin supported the U.S. in the War on Terror , thus creating an opportunity for deepening the relationship with the leading Western and NATO power . However , Russia opposed the expansion of NATO which happened at the 2002 Prague summit . Since 2003 , when Russia did not support the Iraq War and when Putin became ever more distant from the West in his internal and external policies , the relations remained strained . In an interview with Michael Stürmer , Putin was quoted saying that there were three questions which most concerned Russia and Eastern Europe ; namely the status of Kosovo , the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty and American plans to build missile defence sites in Poland and the Czech Republic , and suggested that all three were some way linked . In Putin 's view , concessions on one of these questions on the Western side might be met with concessions from Russia on another
2002 Prague summit
2002 Prague summit
Foreign policy of Vladimir Putin