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.
podcast

Political Diary from Russia

Sean's Russia Blog March 13, 2020 Partner Posts
In this episode of Sean's Russia Blog, host and Eurasia expert Sean Guillory speaks with Ilya Budraitskis and Ilya Matveev, co-hosts of the podcast "Politicheskii dnevnik" on their podcast and on Russian domestic politics in general.
research paper

Jihadists from Ex-Soviet Central Asia: Where Are They? Why Did They Radicalize? What Next?

Edward Lemon, Vera Mironova and William Tobey December 07, 2018 RM Exclusives
Three authors draw on field work and other research to assess the motives, prospects and threats linked to Central Asian jihadists, including the thousands who joined Islamic State and other violent extremists in the Middle East.
multimedia

Video: Russian Economic Challenge 2018

Carnegie Moscow Center September 20, 2018 Partner Posts
In September 2018, the Carnegie Moscow Center held its third annual Russian Economic Challenge conference. This two-day event focused on global inequality, the consequences for Russia and ways to overcome it. 
research paper

China-Russia Relations: Same Bed, Different Dreams? Why Converging Interests Are Unlikely to Lead to a Full-Fledged Alliance

Simon Saradzhyan and Ali Wyne June 07, 2018 RM Exclusives
China and Russia’s shared interests have brought them closer together, but growing disparities between the two make a formal alliance unlikely, unless two conditions emerge—including a weakened, isolated Russia.
multimedia

Video: The Road to Unfreedom

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. May 18, 2018 Partner Posts
In his new book, The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America, Yale historian Timothy Snyder chronicles the troubling path of post-Cold War history that has led to the current state of global democratic crisis.
multimedia

Video: Six More Years of Putin?

Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) March 14, 2018 Partner Posts
In the days before Russia's presidential election, several experts sat down to unpack Russian attitudes, Russian politics and Russian interests regarding the vote and what it might mean for the U.S.
column

Yes, Russian Generals Are Preparing for War. That Doesn’t Necessarily Mean the Kremlin Wants to Start One

Simon Saradzhyan August 30, 2017 RM Exclusives
Past experience suggests that two conditions must exist for Russia to use military exercises as a cover for foreign military interventions and neither one is in place today.
report

A Roadmap for US-Russia Relations

Edited by Andrey Kortunov and Olga Oliker August 01, 2017 Partner Posts
This report by the CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program and the Russian International Affairs Council looks at the troubled state of the U.S.-Russia relationship and recommends areas of potential cooperation.
issue brief

Islamic State and the Bolsheviks: Plenty in Common and Lessons to Heed

Simon Saradzhyan and Monica Duffy Toft December 16, 2016 RM Exclusives
Some scholars say if IS is recognized or contained its “state” will “normalize” like the Bolsheviks’. But IS will not abandon its expansionist agenda or stop mass killings unless it is defeated outright.
report

The Russian "Firehose of Falsehood" Propaganda Model

Christopher Paul and Miriam Matthews July 11, 2016 Partner Posts
The contemporary Russian propaganda model is high-volume, multichannel, rapid, continuous and repetitive. The very factors that make this model successful also make it difficult to counter. While traditional counterpropaganda approaches are likely to be inadequate, more effective solutions can be found in the same psychology literature that explains the surprising success of this phenomenon.
report

The U.S.-Russia Joint Threat Assessment of Nuclear Terrorism

Matthew Bunn, Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, Simon Saradzhyan, William H. Tobey, Yuri Morozov, Viktor I. Yesin, Pavel S. Zolotarev June 06, 2011 Recommended Reads
As it is entirely feasible for terror groups to produce a weapon of mass destruction given enough nuclear material, countries must take stronger steps towards prevention and security.