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 Favorite “Project Managers” Could Become a Risk to the Regime

Andrey Pertsev December 05, 2023 Recommended Reads
Enterprising and competent officials know full well they can survive without Putin. Whether the regime can survive without them, though, is another matter.
article

On The Design of Effective Sanctions: The Case of Bans on Exports to Russia

Ricardo Hausmann, Ulrich Schetter and Muhammed A. Yildirim September 01, 2022 Partner Posts
Well-coordinated sanctions can substantially increase costs to Russia with minimal impact on sanctioning countries, researchers find after examining the impact of export bans on 5,000 products.
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

Putin’s Rationality and Escalation in Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

Kimberly Marten March 09, 2022 Recommended Reads
To understand whether Putin is likely to attack a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member-state or use nuclear weapons, it is helpful to consider a standard social science definition of rationality.
podcast

Vaccine Hesitancy in Russia, France and the United States

PONARS Eurasia September 01, 2021 Partner Posts
Maria Lipman chats with Denis Volkov, Naira Davlashyan and Peter Slevin about why COVID-19 vaccination rates are still so low across the globe, comparing vaccine hesitant constituencies across Russia, France and the United States.
article

Will Russian Behavior Toward the US/West 'Improve' When Putin Is Gone?

Aleksandra Srdanovic August 11, 2021 RM Exclusives
A collection of views from leading policy experts on what we can expect on the global stage from a post-Putin Russia.
article

The Prospects for US-Russia Climate Engagement Under Moscow’s Chairing of the Arctic Council

Katarina Kertysova May 19, 2021 RM Exclusives
Russia will take over the Arctic Council's rotating chairmanship at a time when the organization grapples with multiple challenges and Russia-West relations have hit another historic low.
article

Is the “Resource Curse” Irreversible? Experiences of the Russian Regions

Delgerjargal Uvsh April 05, 2021 Partner Posts
The experiences of Russia’s oil- and gas-producing regions after the collapse of the Soviet Union suggests that political elites can make a difference in reversing the “resource curse” if their abundant revenues from natural resources decline.
article

Five Years After Russia Declared Victory in Syria: What Has Been Won?

Thomas Schaffner March 18, 2021 RM Exclusives
Has the intervention paid off or has Obama’s 2015 prediction that the operation would end in a “quagmire” for Russia come true? An assessment of some key costs and benefits generated by Russia’s intervention in Syria.
article

The Real Russia ‘Reset’: Reassessing US Sanctions Policy Against Russia

Daniel P. Ahn February 25, 2021 RM Exclusives
Empirically tracking sanctions’ exact impact shows that the pecuniary cost of sanctions to Russia has been larger than previously estimated, but these sanctions have had an effect on domestic politics that is not necessarily favorable to U.S. interests.
article

Emulation and Military Change in Russia

Emmanuel Dreyfus October 23, 2020 RM Exclusives
Western models have inspired the creation of Russia's Special Operation Command, Military Police and the development of private military companies, as have centuries-old Russian military traditions.
article

Exposing Putin's Hidden Riches Won't Stop Russia's Election Meddling

Lincoln Pigman August 19, 2020 Future Policy Leaders
The deep flaws in one of Washington’s more popular plans to stop Russia’s election meddling shows just how much work remains to be done on deterring foreign adversaries from undermining the integrity of U.S. elections.
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