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.
Competing Views on Russia

Kissinger on Russia: Insights and Recommendations

RM Staff and Associates December 01, 2023 RM Exclusives
In a compilation of remarks, newly updated following the eminent U.S. statesman's passing, Kissinger offers ways to reconcile America’s necessities with Russia’s concerns.
article

Trump and Putin's Pandemic Duet: Trump's America Is Far More out of Tune

Judyth Twigg and J. Stephen Morrison August 21, 2020 Partner Posts
Russian president Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump share a playbook that has led each country into deep turmoil. But Trump's policies have led America's coronavirus outbreak to far outstrip Russia’s.
article

Kto-Kogo: Putin vs. COVID-19

Thomas Graham May 07, 2020 RM Exclusives
Some believe the pandemic and the oil price collapse will erode the Russian president's power or end his presidency. But with the skill he has shown, and the luck that has favored him for 20 years, he could emerge from this crisis even stronger.
multimedia

Stent and Hill on COVID-19 Challenging Putin’s Grip on Power

VOA May 01, 2020 Partner Posts
Russia experts Angela Stent and Fiona Hill discuss the impact of the coronavirus on the Russian leader as well as on the country's domestic and international positions.
article

Russia’s Health Care System, Demographics Present Unique Advantages, Disadvantages in Fighting COVID-19

Alexandra Vacroux April 30, 2020 RM Exclusives
A recent history of fighting tuberculosis may give Russia an edge in combating the coronavirus, but an imperfectly reformed health system and a legacy of inadequate and unevenly distributed medical facilities may hinder it.
article

Don’t Bet on Reset: US-Russian Relations in the Wake of the Coronavirus

Nikolas K. Gvosdev April 22, 2020 RM Exclusives
By offering himself as an ally to the Trump administration during the crisis, Putin hopes to achieve a long-elusive breakthrough with the U.S. But actions on both sides make the prospect of a 2020 reset unlikely.
issue brief

Maintaining Nuclear Safety and Security During the COVID-19 Crisis

William Tobey, Simon Saradzhyan and Nickolas Roth April 16, 2020 RM Exclusives
How are nuclear organizations coping with COVID-19 and what strategies seem to best ensure the safety and security of their operations? Responses have varied around the world, but already some lessons may be inferred.
book review

Fearing and Ignoring Russia: A Recipe for Trouble

Paul Saunders October 01, 2019 RM Exclusives
Historian Mark Smith’s provocative book won’t give the U.S. a policy to manage its relationship with Russia, but it does offer some valuable guidance in thinking about strategic solutions.
article

The Paradox of American Russophobia

Sean Guillory July 03, 2019 Recommended Reads
The Russian government’s use of Russophobia to chastise critics is nothing new, but this doesn’t mean Russophobia doesn’t exist. It’s a way of “displacing an internal conflict to an external object symbolically related to the conflict.”
book review

Russia’s ‘Peripheral Authoritarianism’ as Described by Grigory Yavlinsky

RM Staff March 22, 2019 RM Exclusives
In his new book, one of post-Soviet Russia’s most enduring liberal politicians describes the emergence of his country’s current system of governance and predicts its impending doom.
article

Russian Nuclear Forces: Buildup or Modernization?

Hans M. Kristensen September 14, 2017 RM Exclusives
Russia is not increasing its nuclear arsenal, though some commentators keep saying it is. What's important, however, is to monitor how Russia is modernizing its strategic nuclear forces.
article

Russian Military Buildup in the West: Fact Versus Fiction

Michael Kofman September 07, 2017 RM Exclusives
Until 2014 Russia was largely cutting the number of troops on NATO's borders to move them elsewhere. The war with Ukraine changed that, reawakening Moscow to the possibility of a large-scale war on its western front.
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