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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Price Cap on Russian Oil Exports Would be Futile; West Should Opt for Tariff Instead

Daniel P. Ahn July 14, 2022 RM Exclusives
Fundamentally, to depress Russian oil revenue Western leaders have only two sets of policies under their control: to increase Western oil supply and to decrease Western oil demand.
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The Causes and Consequences of the Ukraine War

John J. Mearsheimer June 23, 2022 Recommended Reads
The United States has pushed forward policies toward Ukraine that Putin and other Russian leaders see as an existential threat, a point they have made repeatedly for many years.
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Hoping for a Russia Without Putin: Biden Wasn’t the First, or the Last

RM Staff May 26, 2022 RM Exclusives
Would the world be better off with Putin out of power? In this compilation, we have gathered statements by Western and Russian commentators who state or suggest just that, or at least try to explain the thinking of those who hold such a view.
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Experts Weigh In on Diplomatic Solutions in Ukraine

RM Staff May 18, 2022 RM Exclusives
If the warring sides do manage to negotiate in earnest, a durable peace deal would need to accommodate their minimum security requirements—such as Ukraine’s demand for security guarantees and Russia’s demand for Ukraine’s neutrality.
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What Went Wrong With Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine?

Simon Saradzhyan May 12, 2022 RM Exclusives
Eleven weeks after the Feb. 24 invasion it is clear that Vladimir Putin’s initial plan has failed. What is less clear is what exactly went wrong and why.
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Putin’s Invasion Was Immoral but Not Irrational

Mark F. Cancian May 10, 2022 Recommended Reads
Evaluating Putin’s decision requires capturing what was known at the time, not what became evident later.
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Why Hasn’t Russia Unleashed ‘Cybergeddon’ in Its War on Ukraine?

RM Staff May 04, 2022 RM Exclusives
Some experts say expectations of cyber apocalypse have been overblown, while others argue Russia has already done plenty of cyber damage. Check out our compilation for what Russia’s use (and non-use) of cyber means in the war on Ukraine.
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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?
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Lessons From the Battle for Kyiv

Alex Vershinin April 21, 2022 RM Exclusives
The operation rapidly degenerated into an urban battle of attrition favorable to Ukraine, and eventually the Russian government withdrew its troops, conceding defeat in the battle for Kyiv, while preparing a second phase of the war in Donbas.
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Decoding Putin’s Speeches: The Three Ideological Lines of Russia’s Military Intervention in Ukraine

Marlene Laruelle and Ivan Grek February 25, 2022 RM Exclusives
Putin's Feb. 21 and Feb. 24 speeches have confirmed the construction of a narrative legitimizing the military intervention in Ukraine along three key ideological lines: a historical one, an ethnic one and a political one.
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5 Polls That Contextualize the Russia-Ukraine Crisis

Mary Chesnut February 17, 2022 RM Exclusives
Surveys by the Levada Center help uncover a nuanced range of Russian viewpoints and shed light on complex tensions that have persisted since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
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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.
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