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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Would Putin’s Russia Really Nuke Ukraine?

Graham Allison April 22, 2022 Recommended Reads
If a nuclear strike killed 10,000 or 20,000 innocent Ukrainians, how would the United States or NATO respond?
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The Cyber-Escalation Fallacy

Erica D. Lonergan April 15, 2022 Recommended Reads
For all its potential to disrupt companies, hospitals and utility grids during peacetime, cyberpower is much harder to use against targets of strategic significance or to achieve outcomes with decisive impacts on the battlefield or during crises short of war.
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The Ukraine Temptation

Stephen Wertheim April 12, 2022 Recommended Reads
Biden should reject a cold war strategy of dividing the world and keeping one half dependent on the United States.
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Negotiating with Vladimir Putin: Video Advice from Five Former US Secretaries of State

Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs March 25, 2022 Partner Posts
Based on their personal negotiations with this challenging Russian leader, this compilation delivers highly relevant insights from Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and Rex Tillerson for forging a diplomatic end to the war in Ukraine.
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It’s Time to Offer Russia an Offramp. China Can Help With That.

Wang Huiyao March 13, 2022 Recommended Reads
Securing a multilateral resolution to the crisis in Ukraine will be a tough and risky challenge, but there is no country better placed to do so than China.
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Russia Belongs at the Center of Europe

Anatol Lieven February 10, 2022 Recommended Reads
NATO and the European Union have reached their limits. Here’s what should come next.
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The Bully in the Bubble

Adam E. Casey and Seva Gunitsky February 04, 2022 Recommended Reads
Putin and the perils of information isolation.
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Opportunity for Diplomacy: No Russian Attack Before Feb. 20

Graham Allison February 04, 2022 Recommended Reads
Most of the American foreign policy community has still not come to grips with the relationship that has developed between Russia and China in the decade since Xi Jinping became president.
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Taiwan Is Not Ukraine: Stop Linking Their Fates Together

Kharis Templeman January 27, 2022 Recommended Reads
In the current geopolitical moment, the differences between Ukraine and Taiwan are far more important than their similarities—and linking together the security threats that the two countries face can make both situations worse.
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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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The Ambassadorial Series: Deans of US–Russia Diplomacy

Monterey Initiative in Russian Studies January 24, 2022 Partner Posts
The Ambassadorial Series is a one-of-a-kind docuseries from the Monterey Initiative in Russian Studies featuring in-depth interviews with former U.S. ambassadors to Russia and the Soviet Union.
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Liberal Illusions Caused the Ukraine Crisis

Stephen M. Walt January 19, 2022 Recommended Reads
Had the United States and its European allies not succumbed to hubris, wishful thinking and liberal idealism and relied instead on realism’s core insights, the present crisis would not have occurred.