Analysis

This listing contains all the analytical materials posted on the Russia Matters website. These include: RM Exclusives, commissioned by Russia Matters exclusively for this website; Recommended Reads, deemed particularly noteworthy by our editorial team; Partner Posts, originally published by our partners elsewhere; and Future Policy Leaders, pieces by promising young scholars and policy thinkers. Content can be filtered by genre and subject-specific criteria and is updated often. Gradually we will be adding older Recommended Reads and Partner Posts dating back as far as 2011.
article

Challenges to Internal Security and the Rule of Law From an EU Perspective

Raphael Bossong July 22, 2022 Recommended Reads
The rapidly growing availability of weapons in Ukraine, the country's widespread corruption and weak rule of law and challenges to the eventual securing of ceasefire lines all pose a significant risk to the EU’s internal security.
interview

Fiona Hill: Putin’s Running Out of Time

Foreign Policy July 14, 2022 Recommended Reads
In this interview, the former White House Russia adviser says Putin wants the Ukraine conflict over with.
article

Reviving Arms Control, Post-Ukraine: Why New START Still Matters

Stephen J. Cimbala and Lawrence J. Korb July 13, 2022 Recommended Reads
Will the continuing war in Ukraine and resulting toxic relations between Russia and NATO push nuclear arms control into the dustbin of history?
article

Biden Needs Architects, Not Mechanics, to Fix US Foreign Policy

Stephen M. Walt July 12, 2022 Recommended Reads
As the U.S. midterms near, Washington is plagued by groupthink and a lack of vision that prevents creative solutions to the problems of a new era.
article

Ukraine’s Implausible Theories of Victory: The Fantasy of Russian Defeat and the Case for Diplomacy

Barry R. Posen July 08, 2022 Recommended Reads
At present, the most plausible result after months or years of fighting is a stalemate close to the current battle lines.
article

Russia-Belarus Nuclear Sharing Would Mirror NATO’s—and Worsen Europe’s Security

Nikolai N. Sokov July 01, 2022 Recommended Reads
Putin’s decision to deploy dual-capable missiles in Belarus raises three obvious questions: Why? Why now? Is the decision reversible?
article

The Causes and Consequences of the Ukraine War

John J. Mearsheimer June 23, 2022 Recommended Reads
The United States has pushed forward policies toward Ukraine that Putin and other Russian leaders see as an existential threat, a point they have made repeatedly for many years.
article

Not Built for Purpose: The Russian Military’s Ill-Fated Force Design

Michael Kofman and Rob Lee June 02, 2022 Recommended Reads
Force structure reveals a great deal about a military and its assumptions of what wars it plans to fight and how it plans to fight them.
podcast

What the Experts Got Wrong (and Right) About Russian Military Power

Christopher Dougherty, Gian Gentile, Michael Kofman, Dara Massicot and Ryan Evans May 30, 2022 Recommended Reads
It is now widely understood that many observers, in advance of this war, over-estimated Russian military performance and underestimated Ukrainian military performance.
article

The Russia-Ukraine War: A Setback for Arms Control

Steven Pifer May 23, 2022 Recommended Reads
The Kremlin seems intent on achieving a victory on the battlefield, while relations between the West and Russia plummet to new lows. One casualty: U.S.-Russian arms control negotiations.
article

The Russian Military’s People Problem

Dara Massicot May 18, 2022 Recommended Reads
The culture of indifference to its personnel fundamentally compromises the Russian military’s efficacy, no matter how extensively it has been modernized.
article

Can Russia Be Made to Pay for Ukraine?

Sam Fleming, Joseph Cotterill, James Politi and Robin Wigglesworth May 17, 2022 Recommended Reads
Scholars and lawyers are warning the decision to confiscate frozen Russian foreign exchange reserves, while tempting, would be fraught with risk, legally questionable and could generate unintended consequences.
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