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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Russian-Speaking’ Fighters In Syria, Iraq And At Home: Consequences And Context

Cerwyn Moore and Mark Youngman November 20, 2017 Recommended Reads
A key aspect of IS’s strategy has been the mobilization of supporters across Russia and the former Soviet Union. However, Russia’s domestic terrorism threat extends beyond both IS and returnees from Syria and Iraq, with domestic recruits and Turkic and Central Asian networks adding to a complex security picture.
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Chaos and Order in a Changing World

Henry Kissinger August 02, 2017 Recommended Reads
In a recent speech, eminent statesman Henry Kissinger offered his views on how the West and NATO can deal with the growing challenges posed by Russia, China and the Middle East.
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Bigger, Not Better: Russia Makes the SCO a Useless Club

Alexander Gabuev June 23, 2017 Recommended Reads
Moscow's fears over Beijing’s rise have led it to cripple the Eurasian organization.
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Tom Friedman Is Calling for a Partition of Syria: Trump Should Run the Other Way

Stephen M. Walt April 07, 2017 Recommended Reads
Sending U.S. troops into Syria is not a solution. After all, the U.S. does not have the best track record when it comes to intervention in the Middle East.
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Ukraine’s Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace

Nicolai N. Petro September 07, 2016 Recommended Reads
Amidst the brewing domestic political storm, the struggle for the right to define Ukrainian identity has become a “perpetual war, for perpetual peace,” a peace that can only come when all the enemies of Ukraine, at home and abroad, are fully vanquished.
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The Russian World in Moscow’s Strategy

Igor Zevelev August 22, 2016 Recommended Reads
The concepts of "compatriots" and "the Russian World" were created as tools to allow Moscow to honor post-Soviet borders and address the concerns of those who did not perceive them as fully legitimate. However, in 2014, these ideas were put to different purposes.
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False Alert: Is Russia Beefing Up Forces on NATO’s Border?

Ulrich Kühn July 08, 2016 Recommended Reads
While Russia has done an about-face on military reforms meant to switch from large divisions to smaller, more mobile brigades, Moscow is not (yet) creating additional armed forces.
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Why Putin Tolerates Corruption

Ivan Krastev May 15, 2016 Recommended Reads
Unlike for Xi Jinping, there is little incentive for Putin to begin an effective anti-corruption campaign, and compelling reasons not to.
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How Western aid enables graft addiction in Ukraine

M. Steven Fish and Neil A. Abrams May 05, 2016 Recommended Reads
Can Western aid actually support the cause of reform in Ukraine? Or is Western assistance enabling an entrenched elite to continue stealing and avoid building a functioning state?
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Ukraine's Hybrid State

Balázs Jarábik and Mikhail Minakov April 22, 2016 Recommended Reads
Ukraine has new institutions and a vibrant civil society, but a culture of corruption erodes state legitimacy. The state has been captured by enemies within.
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Russia and the Menace of Unreality

Peter Pomerantsev September 09, 2014 Recommended Reads
Russian state information apparatuses achieve their goals not by constructing a widely accepted version of the "truth", but instead by disrupting Western narratives at home and abroad.
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How to Solve the Ukraine Crisis

Graham Allison June 06, 2014 Recommended Reads
Given the complex realities contributing to the war in Ukraine, Graham Allison outlines six recommendations that could help stop the ongoing conflict.
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