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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Prigozhin’s Mutiny by the Hour

Mikael Pir-Budagyan and RM Staff July 26, 2023 RM Exclusives
Russia Matters has put together a timeline of the real-time daily developments throughout June 2023, including reactions to the mutiny, which has posed the greatest security threat to Vladimir Putin’s Russia in 23 years.
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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."
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Roles and Implications of AI in the Russian-Ukrainian Conflict

Sam Bendett July 20, 2023 RM Exclusives
Ukraine has managed to maintain a human-centric approach toward AI use, but Western militaries still need to agree on how to use AI after its debut in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
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Clues from Russian Views: Has the NATO Summit Become Music to Moscow’s Ears?

Mikael Pir-Budagyan and RM Staff July 14, 2023 RM Exclusives
A collection of Russian reactions to the Vilnius gathering
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A World Transformed and the Role of Intelligence

William J Burns July 01, 2023 Recommended Reads
'We are ... at an inflection point. The post-Cold War era is definitely over. Our task is to shape what comes next,' says CIA Director William Burns, as he delivers the 59th Ditchley Annual Lecture.
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Mutiny in Russia: What Happened, What’s Next and What To Be Thankful For

Simon Saradzhyan June 29, 2023 RM Exclusives
Deus ex machina or not, we should be thankful that this struggle for power within the Russian ruling elite did not acquire a nuclear dimension.
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To Truly Pressure Russia’s Oligarchs, the West Should Target Their Wealth Managers

Ho-Chun Herbert Chang June 20, 2023 RM Exclusives
Russia's superrich rely on a small number of wealth managers, many of whom reside in Europe, making them relatively easy targets for Western policymakers hoping to ramp up sanctions amid Moscow's ongoing war with Ukraine.
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Biden Must Heed JFK’s Lessons on Rolling Back Nuclear Dangers

Matthew Bunn June 10, 2023 Recommended Reads
On its 60th anniversary, Americans ought to remember President John F. Kennedy’s “A Strategy of Peace” speech and the positive diplomatic efforts it unleashed.
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To Blunt the Threat of Harm From AI, First Prevent Cold War II

Robert Wright June 08, 2023 Recommended Reads
 What's needed is a world more like that of a couple of decades ago, before America's relations with China (and Russia) started to go downhill, the author argues.
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Ground Rules for the Age of AI Warfare

Lauren Kahn June 06, 2023 Recommended Reads
How to Keep Autonomous Weapons From Stumbling Into Conflict
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Why Putin Will Use Nuclear Weapons in Ukraine

Kevin Ryan May 17, 2023 RM Exclusives
A former U.S. defense attaché to Moscow believes it's almost unavoidable.
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For Russians, Reading Is the New Resistance

Andrei Kolesnikov May 14, 2023 Recommended Reads
When Russia launched the war that Russians must not call a war—the “special military operation,” in the Kremlin’s parlance—many Russians immediately recognized the Orwellian reality in which they now lived. George Orwell's 1984, a dystopian novel about a totalitarian regime in a state of perpetual war written in the 1940s, became the most popular fiction book.