For twenty-five years there has been a more open relationship between Russia and the West. Gradually, this openness has been replaced by a more hard-line regime under president Vladimir Putin.

Although there has been no return to the Cold War, mistrust and tension have once again emerged between East and West in recent times. This has largely been the result of former Eastern bloc countries like the Ukraine aligning itself closer to Western democracy and joining the European Union. This has become unacceptable to the Putin leadership and led first to the annexing of Crimea as a strategic port on the Black Sea, and then to Russia supporting the rebels trying to take back land in Eastern Ukraine.

In response, the West has imposed economic and political sanctions on Russia in the hope of persuading Putin to pull back. Whilst the tensions are nothing like those at the height of the Cold War, at times it feels like a throwback to those times.