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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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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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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Blurring the Line Between Nuclear and Nonnuclear Weapons: Increasing the Risk of Accidental Nuclear War?

Pavel Podvig April 15, 2016 Recommended Reads
Combining the controls for conventional and nuclear weapons into a single system, as Russia has done in recent years, increases the likelihood of accidental nuclear war.
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Explaining Russia’s New Normal

Chris Weafer September 11, 2015 Recommended Reads
More than just maturation or growth, "new normal" represents fundamental change in how an economy is managed, and it has practical implications for how businesses and investors look at opportunities and risk in Russia's changing economy.
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Good News From Ukraine: It Doesn't Have Nukes

Graham Allison March 21, 2014 Recommended Reads
Considering the current crisis in Ukraine, Graham Allison reflects on the negotiation process for the denuclearization of Ukraine that was carried out in the 1990s.
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A Chinese Marshall Plan for Central Asia?

Temuri Yakobashvili October 16, 2013 Recommended Reads
Chinese economic and development policy in Central Asia is reminiscent of the U.S. Marshall Plan, possibly edging out Russia as the dominant foreign influence in the region.
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What Happened to the Soviet Superpower’s Nuclear Arsenal? Clues for the Nuclear Security Summit

Graham Allison March 01, 2012 Recommended Reads
Graham Allison considers what clues we can extract from successfully denuclearizing 14 post-Soviet states, and how those clues can inform our non-proliferation and nuclear security efforts in the future.