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 Master Plan to Seize the Arctic

Vladislav Inozemtsev May 02, 2016 Recommended Reads
For now, the Northern Sea Route remains a bluff, like, in general, all of Russia’s plans to develop the Arctic.
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Blurring the Line Between Nuclear and Nonnuclear Weapons: Increasing the Risk of Accidental Nuclear War?

Pavel Podvig April 15, 2016 Recommended Reads
Combining the controls for conventional and nuclear weapons into a single system, as Russia has done in recent years, increases the likelihood of accidental nuclear war.
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Unpacking Russia's New National Security Strategy

Olga Oliker January 07, 2016 Partner Posts
Russia's new national security strategy is the document of an ambitious Russia that sees constraints on its ambitions as threats to be overcome, whether they come from within or without.
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The Limits of Russian-Iranian Cooperation

Nikolay Kozhanov November 27, 2015 Recommended Reads
Although Tehran is reassuring Moscow of its partnership in Syria, cooperation between Russia and Iran faces an uncertain future.
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A Path Out of the Middle East Collapse

Henry Kissinger October 16, 2015 Recommended Reads
With Russia increasingly filling the power vacuum in the Middle East left by inconstant U.S. policy, the American government must work with all available parties to combat major threats to stability.
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Russia’s Breakout From the Post-Cold War System

Dmitri Trenin December 22, 2014 Recommended Reads
In 2014, Russia broke out of the post–Cold War order and openly challenged the U.S.-led international system.
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When All You Have Is a Hammer: Strategic Nuclear Forces and the Ukraine Crisis

Andrew Szarejko and Kingston Reif May 09, 2014
While an American response is needed to Russian aggression in Ukraine, it should not include the expansion or acceleration of nuclear facilities in Central and Eastern Europe.
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The Myth of Arctic Shipping: Why the Northern Sea Route Is Still of Limited Geo-Economic Importance

Andreas Raspotnik and Kathrin Stephen September 08, 2013 Recommended Reads
Despite media claims, China's use of trans-Arctic shipping does not indicate a shift toward the increased importance of the Northern Sea Route.
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The Wary Chinese-Russian Partnership

Jeffrey Mankoff July 11, 2013 Recommended Reads
China and Russia have a complex relationship marked by selective cooperation. The U.S. should take their complaints seriously.
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Beyond the Russian Reset

Samuel Charap June 25, 2013 Partner Posts
A period of apparent warming between Moscow and Washington has fallen apart as underlying troubles remain unaddressed.