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.
column

We Need to Have a Talk About Alexei Navalny

Terrell Jermaine Starr March 01, 2021 Recommended Reads
If Navalny is serious about challenging the current regime, Russians—and the outside world—have a right to know precisely whom we’re dealing with.
article

What Is the Purpose of American Foreign Policy?

Jacob Heilbrunn December 20, 2020 Partner Posts
Several experts debate American interests and the goal of U.S. foreign policy.
column

The Curious Case of ‘Russian Lives Matter’

Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon July 11, 2020 Recommended Reads
In Moscow, the Kremlin attacks U.S. racism while the liberal opposition ignores it, or worse.
research paper

Envisioning Opportunities for US-Russia Cooperation in and With Central Asia

Marlene Laruelle and Andrey Kortunov April 01, 2019 Partner Posts
Central Asia stands out as a comparatively “nontoxic” region where there are limited, but not insignificant, opportunities for U.S.-Russia collaboration both bilaterally and within multilateral frameworks.
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.
event summary

Panel Discussion: US Politics & Russia

Institute of Politics April 05, 2017 Partner Posts
Panelists speculate on the future of the U.S.-Russian relationship at this event co-hosted by Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
research paper

Illusions vs. Reality: Twenty-Five Years of US Policy Toward Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia

Eugene Rumer, Richard Sokolsky, Paul Stronski and Andrew S. Weiss February 09, 2017 Recommended Reads
Long-standing disagreements on national security interests and policies will make repairing the U.S.-Russian relationship challenging.
event summary

Russia and the U.S. Election: Assessing Moscow’s Actions and America’s Responses

RM Staff January 27, 2017 Partner Posts
How should Washington respond to alleged Russian hacking? What is it trying to accomplish and what is the cost/benefit of each response? Experts convened by the Center for the National Interest weigh in.
event summary

Keys, Hurdles, Strategies: US-Russia Relations Under Trump

RM staff January 20, 2017 RM Exclusives
Whither U.S.-Russia relations under Trump? Three top experts weigh in with a look at national interests, obstacles to rapprochement and the new president’s emerging strategy.
multimedia

25 Years After the Collapse of the Soviet Union: What Comes Next?

RM staff December 08, 2016 RM Exclusives
Graham Allison, Niall Ferguson, Mary Elise Sarotte and Arne Westad consider the fall of the USSR as “applied history,” pondering what went right, what went wrong and what policymakers can learn.
research paper

Wargaming NATO's Defense of the Baltics

David A. Shlapak and Michael Johnson August 23, 2016 Recommended Reads
The games’ findings are unambiguous: At present NATO cannot successfully defend the territory of its most exposed members; fortunately, changing that will not require Herculean effort.
column

What Would a Realist World Have Looked Like?

Stephen M. Walt January 18, 2016 Recommended Reads
Expanding NATO didn’t strengthen the alliance; it just committed the U.S. to protect a group of weak and hard-to-defend places that were far from home but right next door to Russia.
Refine & Filter

By Section

By Topic

By Country

By Regions

By Genre