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.
interview

Fiona Hill: Putin’s Running Out of Time

Foreign Policy July 14, 2022 Recommended Reads
In this interview, the former White House Russia adviser says Putin wants the Ukraine conflict over with.
article

Would Putin’s Russia Really Nuke Ukraine?

Graham Allison April 22, 2022 Recommended Reads
If a nuclear strike killed 10,000 or 20,000 innocent Ukrainians, how would the United States or NATO respond?
article

Opportunity for Diplomacy: No Russian Attack Before Feb. 20

Graham Allison February 04, 2022 Recommended Reads
Most of the American foreign policy community has still not come to grips with the relationship that has developed between Russia and China in the decade since Xi Jinping became president.
article

Putin’s Wager in Russia’s Standoff With the West

Michael Kofman January 24, 2022 Recommended Reads
Putin may see diplomacy as a last-ditch effort to avert war in Ukraine, but Russia’s posture suggests that he is leaning toward a unilateral solution.
policy brief

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.
policy brief

Russia’s New Conventional Capability: Implications for Eurasia and Beyond

Nikolai Sokov May 01, 2017 Recommended Reads
Russia’s new conventional-strike capability is significant for the West, whether or not the West wants to acknowledge it.
article

Tom Friedman Is Calling for a Partition of Syria: Trump Should Run the Other Way

Stephen M. Walt April 07, 2017 Recommended Reads
Sending U.S. troops into Syria is not a solution. After all, the U.S. does not have the best track record when it comes to intervention in the Middle East.
article

Syria and the Call of the Quagmire

Paul R. Pillar April 06, 2017 Recommended Reads
America's immersion into the Syrian civil war carries with it the risk of widespread warfare.