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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The Role of Sanctions in US-Russian Relations

Richard Nephew and Andrew S. Weiss July 11, 2016 Recommended Reads
Sanctions are a critical tool in persuading Russia to change its Ukraine policy. But the West’s overreliance on them risks undercutting their long-term effectiveness.
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The Russian "Firehose of Falsehood" Propaganda Model

Christopher Paul and Miriam Matthews July 11, 2016 Partner Posts
The contemporary Russian propaganda model is high-volume, multichannel, rapid, continuous and repetitive. The very factors that make this model successful also make it difficult to counter. While traditional counterpropaganda approaches are likely to be inadequate, more effective solutions can be found in the same psychology literature that explains the surprising success of this phenomenon.
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Is Russia's Economy Doomed to Collapse?

Sergey Aleksashenko July 01, 2016 Recommended Reads
While the primitive structure of the Russian economy and Putin’s pro-market economic doctrine will prevent economic chaos, the Russian economy remains in need of significant political reforms in order to be competitive and attractive in the long run.
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Russia's Medium-Term Economic Prospects

Keith Crane, Shanthi Nataraj, Patrick B. Johnston and Gursel Rafig oglu Aliyev June 22, 2016 Partner Posts
Without major policy changes, the Russian economy will grow slowly in the medium term, even if world market prices for oil rebound sharply by the end of the decade. However, there is much that the Russian government could do internally to accelerate growth.
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Twilight of the Petrostate

Petr Aven, Vladimir Nazarov, Samvel Lazaryan May 17, 2016 Recommended Reads
Only those countries that embrace modernization and carry it further than they did in the previous oil downcycle can hope not be relegated to a historical footnote. Now is the time for petrostates to awaken from their long oil dream and choose between the first and the third worlds.
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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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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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Russia and the Menace of Unreality

Peter Pomerantsev September 09, 2014 Recommended Reads
Russian state information apparatuses achieve their goals not by constructing a widely accepted version of the "truth", but instead by disrupting Western narratives at home and abroad.
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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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The U.S.-Russia Joint Threat Assessment of Nuclear Terrorism

Matthew Bunn, Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, Simon Saradzhyan, William H. Tobey, Yuri Morozov, Viktor I. Yesin, Pavel S. Zolotarev June 06, 2011 Recommended Reads
As it is entirely feasible for terror groups to produce a weapon of mass destruction given enough nuclear material, countries must take stronger steps towards prevention and security.
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Collapse of an Empire: Lessons for Modern Russia

Yegor Gaidar November 02, 2007 Recommended Reads
Soviet nostalgia is misplaced, and could lead Russian authorities down a path of economic disaster if current policy does not change.
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