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.
Clues from Russian Views

Volunteer Battalions: From Offense to (Territorial) Defense?

Nikolai Petrov August 19, 2022
Launched in the spring, the large-scale program to form volunteer battalions across Russia’s regions seeks to accomplish several tasks.
Clues from Russian Views

The Russian Revolution Failed. Long Live the Revolution!

Victor Davidoff August 19, 2022
In 2022, the anniversary of the victorious "August Revolution of 1991" in Russia brings only bitter disappointment that descends into depression.
article

War With Ukraine as Other Means to Speed Up Reversal of Russia’s ‘Civilizational Choice’

Simon Saradzhyan August 12, 2022 RM Exclusives
One overlooked aim of the war in Ukraine is Putin's attempt to speed up a clean break from a “declining” West, so that Russia can blossom as a separate civilization in alignment with the “great civilization” of a “rising” China.
article

What’s Missing from Mearsheimer’s Analysis of the Ukraine War

Joe Cirincione July 29, 2022 RM Exclusives
To make the facts fit his assessment, he must disregard Russia’s own pronouncements, its brutality and the security imperatives of its neighbors.
interview

Fiona Hill: Putin’s Running Out of Time

Foreign Policy July 14, 2022 Recommended Reads
In this interview, the former White House Russia adviser says Putin wants the Ukraine conflict over with.
article

Why Putin Needs Peter the Great

Andrei Zorin June 23, 2022 RM Exclusives
A presidential adviser representing Russia at talks with Ukraine once claimed that historical truth is spurious and one must believe in facts that are beneficial to Russia. Putin clearly agrees.
article

From Accepting NATO Aspirations to ‘Denazifying’: 20+ Years of Putin’s Changing Views on Ukraine

RM Staff June 16, 2022 RM Exclusives
Our review of 22 years of official statements makes it clear that, typically, Putin has publicly signaled shifts in his views on Ukraine before translating them into policy.
Clues from Russian Views

The Future Defederation of Russia

Alexander Etkind June 08, 2022
Contemporary Russia, a nation-state, calls itself a federation, like Germany or Switzerland, when in fact it is behaving like an empire in its hour of decline.
article

Hoping for a Russia Without Putin: Biden Wasn’t the First, or the Last

RM Staff May 26, 2022 RM Exclusives
Would the world be better off with Putin out of power? In this compilation, we have gathered statements by Western and Russian commentators who state or suggest just that, or at least try to explain the thinking of those who hold such a view.
article

The Russian Military’s People Problem

Dara Massicot May 18, 2022 Recommended Reads
The culture of indifference to its personnel fundamentally compromises the Russian military’s efficacy, no matter how extensively it has been modernized.
article

Putin’s Perilous Imperial Dream

Cristina Florea May 10, 2022 Recommended Reads
Underpinning Putin’s righteous battle for Russians in Ukraine is an organic vision of Russian nationhood defined by blood and cultural and spiritual traits rather than by political contract or choice.
article

Lessons From the Battle for Kyiv

Alex Vershinin April 21, 2022 RM Exclusives
The operation rapidly degenerated into an urban battle of attrition favorable to Ukraine, and eventually the Russian government withdrew its troops, conceding defeat in the battle for Kyiv, while preparing a second phase of the war in Donbas.
Refine & Filter

By Section

By Topic

By Country

By Regions

By Groups

By Genre