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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Putin’s Favorite “Project Managers” Could Become a Risk to the Regime

Andrey Pertsev December 05, 2023 Recommended Reads
Enterprising and competent officials know full well they can survive without Putin. Whether the regime can survive without them, though, is another matter.
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A Country Living in Three Eras: Reflections on the 75th anniversary of the DPRK

Alexander Solovyov September 22, 2023 Recommended Reads
Solovyov considers the Cold War, hegemony and the "grand narratives" underpinning Moscow-Pyongyang ties.
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Strelkov’s Arrest

Tatiana Stanovaya July 23, 2023 Recommended Reads
The FSB is in favor of a hardline approach toward "angry patriots," especially figures like Strelkov, who is regarded as a nationalistic "Navalny."
Clues from Russian Views

Destructive distillation of arms

Alexey Arbatov February 06, 2023 Recommended Reads
12 years ago, on February 5, 2011, the treaty on the reduction of strategic offensive arms came into force - the last major treaty that still links Russia and the United States in the military sphere. Exactly 3 years later, it will expire, and what will happen then?
Clues from Russian Views

Divided in the Face of Defeat: The Schism Forming in the Russian Elite

Tatiana Stanovaya December 13, 2022 Recommended Reads
Russia is heading toward a final battle between the radicals, for whom escalation is a way of life, and the realists, who understand that continuing to up the ante could lead to their country’s collapse.
Clues from Russian Views

The Best Way to Control Nuclear Escalation Is Simply to Not Start It

Fyodor Lukyanov interviews Konstantin Bogdanov October 05, 2022 Recommended Reads
Many volumes have been written on escalation control theories, but no one knows how to manage it.
Clues from Russian Views

Bring Back the Fear

Fyodor Lukyanov interviews Dmitri Trenin September 26, 2022 Recommended Reads
Russia's "red line" is absent from the American rule book, which the world is based on. Therefore, the only thing that can stop the United States in this situation is fear—its own fear of the next step.
Clues from Russian Views

Russia’s Economy: ‘The Cart Keeps Creaking Along the Long Path Down’

The Bell/Russia.Post September 07, 2022 Recommended Reads
An interview with Vladimir Gimpelson, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Russia’s Higher School of Economics.
Clues from Russian Views

‘A Very Long Story’: Russia Will Pay a High Price for Economic Decoupling From Europe

Vadim Grishin September 06, 2022 Recommended Reads
The Russian economy is on track for a deep recession, even amid hints of temporary respite.
Clues from Russian Views

Economists Explain Why Sanctions Have Not Brought Down Russia's Economy (Yet)

Meduza September 05, 2022 Recommended Reads
Four experts from the worlds of academe and research weigh in at Meduza's request.
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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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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.