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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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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Why Does Putin Surprise Us Again and Again?

Stephen Blank March 07, 2016 Recommended Reads
Officials who disdain the need for specialists familiar with Russian language, culture and overall defense policy, or who believe that Russians generally think and act just as they do, have primed themselves for disaster.
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The Myth of Arctic Shipping: Why the Northern Sea Route Is Still of Limited Geo-Economic Importance

Andreas Raspotnik and Kathrin Stephen September 08, 2013 Recommended Reads
Despite media claims, China's use of trans-Arctic shipping does not indicate a shift toward the increased importance of the Northern Sea Route.
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The Wary Chinese-Russian Partnership

Jeffrey Mankoff July 11, 2013 Recommended Reads
China and Russia have a complex relationship marked by selective cooperation. The U.S. should take their complaints seriously.
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10 Reasons Why Russia Still Matters

Graham Allison and Robert D. Blackwill October 30, 2011 Recommended Reads
Russia matters a great deal to a U.S. government seeking to defend and advance its national interests.