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.
article

Putin's Plan for Syria

Dmitri Trenin December 13, 2017 Recommended Reads
Having made Russia into one of the major players in Syria, Russian President Vladimir Putin now faces a series of challenges as the conflict winds down.
report

NATO Expansion: What Gorbachev Heard

Svetlana Savranskaya and Tom Blanton December 12, 2017 Recommended Reads
Newly declassified documents lend credence to claims that Western leaders repeatedly reassured their Soviet counterparts in the early 1990s that NATO would not budge "one inch eastward."
article

Latest US-Russian Effort on Syria: Good for Preventing Accidents, So-So for Everything Else

Nikolas K. Gvosdev November 15, 2017 RM Exclusives
Trump and Putin’s joint statement at the APEC summit masks deep divisions between Moscow and Washington over how to resolve the conflict.
survey

Survey on Ukraine: Does Providing Lethal Weapons to Kiev Serve US Vital Interests?

RM Experts August 22, 2017 RM Exclusives
As Mattis heads to Kiev, we ask leading U.S. experts what America’s interests vis-à-vis Ukraine are and whether they are best advanced by supplying lethal weapons to the country.
report

A Roadmap for US-Russia Relations

Edited by Andrey Kortunov and Olga Oliker August 01, 2017 Partner Posts
This report by the CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program and the Russian International Affairs Council looks at the troubled state of the U.S.-Russia relationship and recommends areas of potential cooperation.
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.
podcast

From the Tsardom of Muscovy to Nuclear Cooperation: Podcasts on Russia

Monterey Summer Symposium on Russia June 19, 2017 Partner Posts
Throughout the summer, the Monterey Summer Symposium on Russia will host expert lectures and seminars on a variety of topics ranging from history and art to diplomacy and nonproliferation. As the symposium progresses, these lectures will be made available as podcasts.
Competing Views on Russia

Brzezinski on Russia: Insights and Recommendations

RM Staff June 01, 2017 RM Exclusives
The former presidential advisor on national security retained a deep skepticism about Russia’s aims and intentions, even when calling on the U.S. to integrate it into the West.
article

Snapshot Analysis: Was Chemical Attack in Syria Meant to Drive Wedge Between US and Russia?

Simon Saradzhyan April 07, 2017 RM Exclusives
The U.S. strikes against Syria have sharply escalated tensions between Moscow and Washington, but the two can still mend fences and work toward peace in Syria.
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.
article

Assad Is a Long Way From Victory in Syrian Conflict

David Gardner March 08, 2017
The problem facing Russia and Iran, Assad’s major allies, has a hefty price tag.
research paper

Illusions vs. Reality: Twenty-Five Years of US Policy Toward Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia

Eugene Rumer, Richard Sokolsky, Paul Stronski and Andrew S. Weiss February 09, 2017 Recommended Reads
Long-standing disagreements on national security interests and policies will make repairing the U.S.-Russian relationship challenging.