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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Putin’s End Game?

Henry Hale March 11, 2020 Partner Posts
Even if current appearances are correct that Putin is bidding to stay in power for another decade, the Russian leader’s aging means the issue of succession will not completely go away.
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Putin Is Planning a Partial Retirement

Alexander Baunov January 17, 2020 Partner Posts
Putin has set out the road map for the transition he wants Russia to make in 2024. It is a picture of continuity, in which Putin can still keep a pivotal role, even if not necessarily the most prominent one in public.
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It's Time to Rethink Russia's Foreign Policy Strategy

Dmitri Trenin April 25, 2019 Partner Posts
Russia's rapidly changing geopolitical situation necessitates a restructuring of its inconsistent foreign policy. Primarily, it must renounce any aspirations to military or political domination. The author describes the steps that the Russian government must instead take to promote stability and growth.
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John Mearsheimer on International Relations, Great Power Politics and the Age of Trump

Michael Lind December 15, 2018 Partner Posts
John J. Mearsheimer’s "The Great Delusion: Liberal Dreams and International Realities" argues that the United States’ pursuit of a “liberal hegemony” has been a failure with sizeable costs.
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US Security and Russia: Choices and Consequences

Jill Dougherty and Thomas Zamostny December 07, 2018 Partner Posts
America’s current strategy toward Russia, simply put, is not working; instead, it’s tying our hands. It’s making Russia more aggressive externally and less democratic internally. The dangers are escalating.
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Is Russia Really 'Fascist'?

Marlene Laruelle September 05, 2018 Partner Posts
Scholar Timothy Snyder, among many others, has described Russia—or at least the Putin regime—as “fascist.” Laruelle takes a look at, and debunks, Snyder's four main claims for justifying the label.
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Dawn of a New Armageddon

Cynthia Lazaroff August 06, 2018 Partner Posts
Perhaps the world was safer during the Cold War. Today’s world has entered a new, unchecked and deadly arms race, and arms control has become hostage to political hostilities between the United States and Russia.
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The Helsinki Summit: A Good Idea Turns Bad

George Beebe July 19, 2018 Recommended Reads
Expectations for the Helsinki summit were low, but the U.S. and Russia still managed to sail their listing bilateral ship directly into the rocks of the Russian cyber-meddling controversy.
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Time for a Helsinki Communique

Thomas Graham July 07, 2018 Partner Posts
The Shanghai Communique of 1972 dispensed with worn-out platitudes about cooperation and laid out the disputes between the U.S. and China. Doing so gave it an air of credibility. So what would a U.S.-Russian Helsinki Communique look like?
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What Putin's Reelection Means for Russia and the World

Nikolas K. Gvosdev March 19, 2018 Partner Posts
So Putin returns to office, likely to take the initiative to shape both Russia’s domestic politics and its international position to his liking.
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Averting the US-Russia Warpath

James N. Miller, Richard Fontaine and Alexander Velez-Green February 22, 2018 Partner Posts
For Russia and the U.S., new incentives for using "nonkinetic" weapons, like cyber attacks, threaten the stability afforded by mutually assured destruction.
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New START Expires in 3 Years and Nobody Knows What Comes Next

Nikolai Sokov February 06, 2018 Partner Posts
Much stands in the way of a new treaty, but allowing New START to expire would not be in either country's interest.
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