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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What Global Mutiny Trends Can Teach Us About Russia After Prigozhin’s Uprising

Maggie Dwyer August 11, 2023 RM Exclusives
Given what we know about mutinies around the globe, we should not assume Prigozhin’s rebellion will be a one-off, an expert argues.
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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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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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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.
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What Led to Putin’s Blunder in Ukraine?

Simon Saradzhyan February 24, 2023 RM Exclusives
Three factors are likely to have contributed to shaping Putin’s decision to launch the invasion one year ago.
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Domestic Politics Encourage Continued War of Attrition in Ukraine in 2023

Thomas Graham February 22, 2023 RM Exclusives
The main question now: How far will the escalation go?
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8 Lessons for Taiwan From Russia’s War in Ukraine

Tzu-yun Su January 18, 2023 RM Exclusives
While the fighting in Ukraine is on land, and thus very different from the maritime battlefield that would surround Taiwan, there are still many things this island nation can learn from Ukraine's defensive operations.
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No One Would Win a Long War in Ukraine

Vladislav Zubok December 21, 2022 Recommended Reads
The West must formulate a major policy vision that obviates the desire of Ukraine and its staunchest supporters to have Russia smashed and neutralized.
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Despite Russian Reliance on Iranian Drones, Tehran’s Leverage Over Moscow Is Limited

Mark N. Katz December 01, 2022 RM Exclusives
Russia's desire to maintain good relations with America's traditional allies in the region will serve to limit what Moscow is willing to do for Tehran.
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Putin’s Increasingly Loose Talk on Use of Nukes

Simon Saradzhyan November 10, 2022 RM Exclusives
The Russian leader’s loose talk on nukes even has Russia’s long-term strategic partners such as India and China worried.
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