Russia Matters

Eight experts weigh in on prospects for the two presidents’ first official bilateral summit. All agree that improving U.S.-Russian relations will be a slow process requiring patient work.

The Shanghai Communique of 1972 dispensed with worn-out platitudes about cooperation and laid out the disputes between the U.S. and China. Doing so gave it an air of credibility. So what would a U.S.-Russian Helsinki Communique look like?

For more than two years Ukraine has been quietly “de-occupying” a gray zone between its troops and Russian-backed separatists. No matter how Russia and the West respond, Ukraine’s leadership stands to benefit.

The war in Syria has greatly expanded Russian-speaking extremist groups’ transnational networks in Europe and beyond, posing an international counterterrorism challenge for years to come.

Russia’s standing in the world—both real and perceived—has a profound impact on U.S. security and policies, as well as on Moscow's actions. This report offers a unique quantitative stocktaking of Russia’s national power.

China and Russia’s shared interests have brought them closer together, but growing disparities between the two make a formal alliance unlikely, unless two conditions emerge—including a weakened, isolated Russia.

The new U.S. role as a gas exporter is not a magic antidote to Russia’s “gas dominance” in Europe. But Moscow has largely been forced to play by market rules thanks to a huge, underappreciated effort by Brussels.

Recent reports claiming Russia slashed defense spending by 20 percent from 2016 to 2017 are wrong, the author argues. They stem from a government decision to pay down old debt, not actual cuts to spending.

Looking at U.S. and Russian perspectives on five key challenges to cooperation on nuclear arms control, the authors offer policy recommendations for improving the increasingly strained relationship.

As tensions between Iran and Israel rise to new heights, Russia finds itself in a tricky position—trying to balance between two states that are friendly with Moscow but mortal enemies to each other.