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

Russia’s Economy: ‘The Cart Keeps Creaking Along the Long Path Down’

The Bell/Russia.Post September 07, 2022 Recommended Reads
An interview with Vladimir Gimpelson, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Russia’s Higher School of Economics.
Clues from Russian Views

‘A Very Long Story’: Russia Will Pay a High Price for Economic Decoupling From Europe

Vadim Grishin September 06, 2022 Recommended Reads
The Russian economy is on track for a deep recession, even amid hints of temporary respite.
Clues from Russian Views

Economists Explain Why Sanctions Have Not Brought Down Russia's Economy (Yet)

Meduza September 05, 2022 Recommended Reads
Four experts from the worlds of academe and research weigh in at Meduza's request.
Clues from Russian Views

Russia’s Turn to the East: Between Choice and Necessity

Timofei Bordachev September 01, 2022
Relations with the Asian countries are indeed becoming not a choice, but a necessity.
article

Fact and Analysis Check: Is Odesa ‘Putin’s Obsession'?

Graham Allison August 29, 2022 RM Exclusives
A recent New York Times article claims Odesa is “Putin’s obsession.” But is there any evidence to support this big idea?
article

On Ukraine War, India Balances on Fine Line Between Russia and West

Rakesh Sharma August 26, 2022 RM Exclusives
The war in Ukraine has confronted India with difficult strategic choices as it strives to balance relationships with Washington and with Moscow while competing with Beijing.
article

The World Putin Wants

Fiona Hill and Angela Stent August 25, 2022 Recommended Reads
Russia’s president ordered his "special military operation" because he believes that it is Russia’s divine right to rule Ukraine, to wipe out the country’s national identity and to integrate its people into a Greater Russia.
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

Foreign Fighters in Ukraine: What Concerns Should Really Be on the Agenda?

Egle E. Murauskaite August 18, 2022 RM Exclusives
Their numbers have been smaller and views far less extremist than initially feared. What matters now is reintegrating them into civilian life once they leave the front lines.
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.