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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Russia’s Nuclear-Capable Missiles: A Question of Escalation Control

William Alberque March 15, 2024 Recommended Reads
Aspects of Moscow’s military strategy in Ukraine, including its deployment of dual-use missile systems, have offered some potential insights into its nuclear-weapons doctrine.
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Rattling the Nuclear Saber: What Russia’s Nuclear Threats Really Mean

Lauren Sukin May 04, 2023 Recommended Reads
It is precisely because of, and not in spite of, the fact that Moscow and Pyongyang have repeatedly held their nuclear arsenals over Western heads that leaders should take these threats seriously.
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Nuclear Weapons in Belarus: History Repeats Itself

William Alberque March 31, 2023 RM Exclusives
Russia’s increasingly violent nuclear rhetoric and basing of nuclear weapons in Belarus are to be condemned. However, these developments do not alter the balance of power in Europe, nor do they significantly alter the risk of nuclear conflict.
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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?
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America Takes Pole Position on Oil and Gas

Daniel Yergin February 14, 2022 Recommended Reads
U.S. exports limit price increases and help check disruptive behavior by the likes of Russia and Iran.
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Good News from the Russian Front

Graham Allison December 24, 2021 Recommended Reads
As we celebrate Christmas 2021, we should pause to remember: How many nuclear weapons from the former Soviet arsenal have proliferated? Not the 250 Cheney predicted. Not twenty-five. Indeed, not a single nuclear weapon has been discovered outside the control of Russian authorities.
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Is the “Resource Curse” Irreversible? Experiences of the Russian Regions

Delgerjargal Uvsh April 05, 2021 Partner Posts
The experiences of Russia’s oil- and gas-producing regions after the collapse of the Soviet Union suggests that political elites can make a difference in reversing the “resource curse” if their abundant revenues from natural resources decline.
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A Nobel Prize for Trump and Kim Is No Joke

Leonid Bershidsky April 27, 2018
Making the world a safer place through a Korean peace deal may be enough to redeem the words and deeds of both leaders.
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Nuclear Dangers from North Korea: Managing the Risks to the US and Russia

Joshua H. Pollack October 27, 2017 RM Exclusives
The risk of an American conflict with North Korea is growing, and along with it so is the risk of an accidental war between the two nuclear superpowers.