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.
book review

Thomas Graham on Why and How America Should Start Getting Russia Right

Simon Saradzhyan October 19, 2023 RM Exclusives
The U.S. needs to get Russia right, which requires America to see Russia “plainly and without sentiment,” Graham writes in his new book.
explainer

The Origins and Efficacy of the Price Cap on Russian Oil

Benjamin H. Harris September 14, 2023 RM Exclusives
The price cap on Russian oil is achieving its goals of lowering Russian revenue while preserving global supply.
book review

A New Putin Biography: Rich Stories of Early Life, and Some Needless America Bashing

Paul Saunders October 26, 2022 RM Exclusives
Despite some shortcomings, Philip Short’s new biography “Putin” is valuable to anyone eager to learn more about Russia’s leader.
book review

Negotiators, Take Heed: Whether You’re Talking With Russia or Others, New Book Is Master Class on Working Your Way to a Deal

Olga Oliker April 06, 2022 RM Exclusives
A striking aspect of Rose Gottemoeller’s story of New START is that she and her team faced as many challenges from the U.S. as from their Russian counterparts.
article

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.
article

US-Russia Strategic Stability Dialogue: Purpose, Progress, Challenges and Opportunities

Leonor Tomero December 15, 2021 RM Exclusives
A serious and good-faith dialogue with Russia about the risks to strategic stability is necessary to understand the changing nature of those risks and the direction new arms races may take and to reduce the risk of unintended escalation.
book review

Plokhy’s New Cuban Missile Crisis Book Offers Glimpse Into the Minds of Rank-and-File Soviet Officers

Simon Saradzhyan June 25, 2021 RM Exclusives
Harvard Professor Serhii Plokhy’s new book, “Nuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis,” offers new insights into the experiences of lower-level officers who participated in the perilous events that brought us to the brink of nuclear war nearly 60 years ago.
article

Potential Fruits of the Biden-Putin Summit

Simon Saradzhyan June 04, 2021 RM Exclusives
At the Putin-Biden summit, both sides will likely be looking for low-hanging fruits—issues they can easily agree upon that stand to advance U.S. and Russian interests with minimal concessions. In our latest exclusive, Simon Saradzhyan considers low-hanging fruits, like scientific cooperation, and more ambitious topics, such as rules of the road in the cyber domain.
book review

Stoner’s Quantitative and Qualitative Assessment of Russia’s New Strength

Paul Saunders May 05, 2021 RM Exclusives
Kathryn E. Stoner's effort to measure Russia’s power comprises the bulk of her new book and provides a generally helpful overview of the country’s capabilities despite some limitations.
article

Five Years After Russia Declared Victory in Syria: What Has Been Won?

Thomas Schaffner March 18, 2021 RM Exclusives
Has the intervention paid off or has Obama’s 2015 prediction that the operation would end in a “quagmire” for Russia come true? An assessment of some key costs and benefits generated by Russia’s intervention in Syria.
column

We Need to Have a Talk About Alexei Navalny

Terrell Jermaine Starr March 01, 2021 Recommended Reads
If Navalny is serious about challenging the current regime, Russians—and the outside world—have a right to know precisely whom we’re dealing with.
book review

Robert Gates’ Insights on How to Employ Instruments of US National Power

Simon Saradzhyan November 18, 2020 RM Exclusives
Robert Gates’ new book constitutes the most coherent of recent attempts to catalogue the key instruments of modern America’s national power and then discern how their use has evolved following the end of the Cold War and to what effect.
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