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 and China’s Enduring Alliance

Jacob Stokes February 22, 2017 Recommended Reads
For Russia to turn against China, Moscow may seek anything from lifted sanctions to the abolition of NATO.
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Neo-McCarthyite Furor Around Russia Is Counterproductive

Katrina vanden Heuvel February 21, 2017 Recommended Reads
In this political climate, common sense is being lost and important questions are not being addressed.
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Why Trump Is Right on Russia

Anatol Lieven February 14, 2017 Recommended Reads
Recent policy failures suggest that cooperation with Russia is unavoidable.
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The ABCs of Russian Military Power: A Primer for the New Administration

Michael Kofman February 02, 2017 Recommended Reads
Russia has been busy restoring its military power, and these reforms have serious implications for the new U.S. administration.
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Putin’s Great Patriotic Pseudoscience

Maria Antonova November 29, 2016 Recommended Reads
The rise of pseudoscience is connected to Russia's growing isolation and nationalism.
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A Tale of Two Statues: Putin, Stalin and Russia's Bloody Past

Alexander Baunov November 07, 2016 Recommended Reads
Many Russians want a ruler who shows kindness to the masses and a far less forgiving attitude toward elites; Putin's style of rule doesn't quite fit that model.
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Russia’s False Dawn

Robert Kahn July 18, 2016 Recommended Reads
While there has been a new sense of optimism about the Russian economy, poor structural polices and deficit constraints suggest that it may have a limited capacity to respond to future shocks.
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Is Russia's Economy Doomed to Collapse?

Sergey Aleksashenko July 01, 2016 Recommended Reads
While the primitive structure of the Russian economy and Putin’s pro-market economic doctrine will prevent economic chaos, the Russian economy remains in need of significant political reforms in order to be competitive and attractive in the long run.
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Quite Possibly the Dumbest Military Concept Ever: A 'Limited' Nuclear War

Geoff Wilson and Will Saetren May 27, 2016 Recommended Reads
Thinking we can use nuclear weapons in a “limited” way without inviting nuclear catastrophe is a dangerous fantasy.
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Twilight of the Petrostate

Petr Aven, Vladimir Nazarov, Samvel Lazaryan May 17, 2016 Recommended Reads
Only those countries that embrace modernization and carry it further than they did in the previous oil downcycle can hope not be relegated to a historical footnote. Now is the time for petrostates to awaken from their long oil dream and choose between the first and the third worlds.
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US-Russian Relations: The Middle Cannot Hold

Samuel Charap and Jeremy Shapiro May 03, 2016 Recommended Reads
The Obama administration's "middle-way" strategy towards Russian policy of concurrent antagonism and cooperation must be ended in favor of a more stable path.
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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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