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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Why Putin Needs Peter the Great

Andrei Zorin June 23, 2022 RM Exclusives
A presidential adviser representing Russia at talks with Ukraine once claimed that historical truth is spurious and one must believe in facts that are beneficial to Russia. Putin clearly agrees.
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5 Polls That Contextualize the Russia-Ukraine Crisis

Mary Chesnut February 17, 2022 RM Exclusives
Surveys by the Levada Center help uncover a nuanced range of Russian viewpoints and shed light on complex tensions that have persisted since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
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Breaking the Impasse Between Russia and the West Over European Security

Thomas Graham January 20, 2022 RM Exclusives
Compromises by the West—including a lengthy moratorium on NATO expansion—can ensure that competition with Moscow proceeds in a way that minimizes the risk of catastrophic military conflict.
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For Russia and US, National Security Must Be Embedded in Mutual Security

Robert Legvold January 06, 2022 RM Exclusives
The clash around Ukraine is over competing rights, not merely conflicting interests, and any solution depends on incentives (rather than disincentives) and a rebuilding of trust.
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Fact-Check: Is Russia's Economy 'Nuclear Weapons and Oil Wells and Nothing Else,' as Biden Claimed?

RM Staff December 28, 2021 RM Exclusives
The U.S. president’s July 2021 remarks about Russia’s economy may have been hyperbolic, but variations of the claim surface regularly and are not backed up by data.
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Russia's Discouraging Demographics Shouldn't Change US Approach

Alexandra Vacroux December 21, 2021 RM Exclusives
The possibility that Russia might have fewer people and a smaller economy will not negate the fact that it is a nuclear superpower with unfriendly intent. What Russia becomes is less important than what Russia is willing to do.
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Influence of the Defense Industry on US National Security Strategy

Matt Korda November 12, 2021 RM Exclusives
The U.S. government has created a corporate juggernaut with inordinate influence over policy, particularly vis-à-vis Russia.
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NDAA-2022: How US Priorities Regarding Russia Have Shifted

Aleksandra Srdanovic November 05, 2021 RM Exclusives
This comparison of all provisions of the enacted 2021 and proposed 2022 NDAAs that affect Russia, former Soviet republics and Baltic countries highlights how U.S. priorities regarding Russia have shifted in recent years.
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Russia’s Defense Industry and Its Influence on Policy: Stuck in a Redistributive Feedback Loop

Pavel Luzin November 03, 2021 RM Exclusives
In competing for government resources Russia’s defense corporations and the people affiliated with them become both beneficiaries and proponents of Moscow’s ongoing confrontation with the West.
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30 Years After End of Soviet Union, Its Main Lesson for Russia Remains ‘Reform or Else'

Sergei Guriev August 31, 2021 RM Exclusives
Rapid economic growth requires reforms; reforms frighten entrenched elites; lack of economic growth will eventually force the regime to change—though whether this means more democratization or more repressiveness remains to be seen.
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Be Careful What You Wish For: Russia, China and Afghanistan after the Withdrawal

Jeffrey Mankoff July 29, 2021 RM Exclusives
Do Beijing and Moscow have sufficient influence to oversee a managed transition, contain any spillover of violence, and provide reassurance to anxious Afghanistan neighbors? The whole region is about to find out.
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The Prospects for US-Russia Climate Engagement Under Moscow’s Chairing of the Arctic Council

Katarina Kertysova May 19, 2021 RM Exclusives
Russia will take over the Arctic Council's rotating chairmanship at a time when the organization grapples with multiple challenges and Russia-West relations have hit another historic low.
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