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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Dawn of a New Armageddon

Cynthia Lazaroff August 06, 2018 Partner Posts
Perhaps the world was safer during the Cold War. Today’s world has entered a new, unchecked and deadly arms race, and arms control has become hostage to political hostilities between the United States and Russia.
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The Helsinki Summit: A Good Idea Turns Bad

George Beebe July 19, 2018 Recommended Reads
Expectations for the Helsinki summit were low, but the U.S. and Russia still managed to sail their listing bilateral ship directly into the rocks of the Russian cyber-meddling controversy.
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Time for a Helsinki Communique

Thomas Graham July 07, 2018 Partner Posts
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?
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Transformed Gas Markets Fuel US-Russian Rivalry, But Europe Plays Key Role Too

Morena Skalamera May 30, 2018 RM Exclusives
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.
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Video: What's Next for US-Russia Relations?

Kennan Institute April 05, 2018 Partner Posts
With the recent expulsion of U.S., European and Russia diplomats, the crisis in U.S.-Russian relations continues to escalate. Is there any sign of a thaw in the relationship in the near future?
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Averting the US-Russia Warpath

James N. Miller, Richard Fontaine and Alexander Velez-Green February 22, 2018 Partner Posts
For Russia and the U.S., new incentives for using "nonkinetic" weapons, like cyber attacks, threaten the stability afforded by mutually assured destruction.
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New START Expires in 3 Years and Nobody Knows What Comes Next

Nikolai Sokov February 06, 2018 Partner Posts
Much stands in the way of a new treaty, but allowing New START to expire would not be in either country's interest.
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Putin’s Peacekeepers: Beware of Russians Bearing Gifts

Fredrik Wesslau September 11, 2017 Partner Posts
The Russian president's proposal for a U.N. peacekeeping force in eastern Ukraine could be a trap—or it could provide a means of de-escalating the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
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Trump, Putin and the Growing Risk of Military Escalation

Łukasz Kulesa and Shatabhisha Shetty July 04, 2017 Partner Posts
In this policy brief, the authors argue that the presidency of Donald Trump is complicating an already tense and challenged deterrence relationship between Russia and NATO, and this is exacerbated by the tendency of the Russian leadership to take foreign policy risks.
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25 Years of Nuclear Security Cooperation by the US, Russia and Other Newly Independent States: A Timeline

Mariana Budjeryn, Simon Saradzhyan and William Tobey June 16, 2017 RM Exclusives
At a time when the U.S. and the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union still saw each other as mortal enemies, they found the courage, creativity and capacity for trust to work together in the name of preventing nuclear catastrophe.
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Elevation and Calibration: A New Russia Policy for America

Andrew Kuchins December 01, 2016 Partner Posts
With the U.S.-Russia relationship at its most dangerous level since the 1980s, the arrival of a new administration presents an opportunity to clearly evaluate the significant risks current hostilities pose. Containment or deterrence alone cannot mitigate these risks; instead, Washington should pursue a policy of calibration and elevation.
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Beyond the Russian Reset

Samuel Charap June 25, 2013 Partner Posts
A period of apparent warming between Moscow and Washington has fallen apart as underlying troubles remain unaddressed.