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.
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Russian Women in the Face of War Against Ukraine

Egle E. Murauskaite March 26, 2024 Partner Posts
Russia’s war against Ukraine has revealed stories about the heroic resistance efforts of Ukrainian women, but comparable stories have been entirely lacking on Russia’s side.
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West Sanctions Russian Aviation, But Moscow Decides to Keep Planes Flying Despite Risks

Steven E. Harris October 26, 2023 RM Exclusives
As Russia seeks cracks in Western countries’ united efforts to sanction Russia over its war against Ukraine, U.S. policymakers and their allies need to better explain not only the motifs, but also the goals of their punitive measures against Russia’s aviation sector.
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Mutiny in Russia: What Happened, What’s Next and What To Be Thankful For

Simon Saradzhyan June 29, 2023 RM Exclusives
Deus ex machina or not, we should be thankful that this struggle for power within the Russian ruling elite did not acquire a nuclear dimension.
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Domestic Politics Encourage Continued War of Attrition in Ukraine in 2023

Thomas Graham February 22, 2023 RM Exclusives
The main question now: How far will the escalation go?
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Why Is Anti-Americanism in Russia Less Widespread Now Than in 2014?

Denis Volkov October 05, 2022 RM Exclusives
Three factors may help explain: Negative attitudes toward the U.S. have become background noise; young people are getting more news online; and peak anti-Americanism may still lie ahead.
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On The Design of Effective Sanctions: The Case of Bans on Exports to Russia

Ricardo Hausmann, Ulrich Schetter and Muhammed A. Yildirim September 01, 2022 Partner Posts
Well-coordinated sanctions can substantially increase costs to Russia with minimal impact on sanctioning countries, researchers find after examining the impact of export bans on 5,000 products.
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Why Putin Needs Peter the Great

Andrei Zorin June 23, 2022 RM Exclusives
A presidential adviser representing Russia at talks with Ukraine once claimed that historical truth is spurious and one must believe in facts that are beneficial to Russia. Putin clearly agrees.
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5 Polls That Contextualize the Russia-Ukraine Crisis

Mary Chesnut February 17, 2022 RM Exclusives
Surveys by the Levada Center help uncover a nuanced range of Russian viewpoints and shed light on complex tensions that have persisted since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
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As Markets Crash and War Fears Grow, Russia’s Business Elite Suffers in Silence

Pjotr Sauer and Jake Cordell January 25, 2022 Partner Posts
Some of the country’s most successful executives are preparing for heavy losses, but unable to speak out or influence events.
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‘Green Burden’: How Global Climate Policies Could Impact Russia

Danila Bochkarev August 04, 2021 RM Exclusives
European carbon taxes and a broader push for less fossil fuel could cost Russia’s economy billions of dollars, nudging Moscow to adopt new policies.
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The Real Russia ‘Reset’: Reassessing US Sanctions Policy Against Russia

Daniel P. Ahn February 25, 2021 RM Exclusives
Empirically tracking sanctions’ exact impact shows that the pecuniary cost of sanctions to Russia has been larger than previously estimated, but these sanctions have had an effect on domestic politics that is not necessarily favorable to U.S. interests.
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Exposing Putin's Hidden Riches Won't Stop Russia's Election Meddling

Lincoln Pigman August 19, 2020 Future Policy Leaders
The deep flaws in one of Washington’s more popular plans to stop Russia’s election meddling shows just how much work remains to be done on deterring foreign adversaries from undermining the integrity of U.S. elections.