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.
issue brief

Ukraine’s Insurgency, Purposefully Limited in Aims and Size, Pokes Holes in Russian Occupation

Jean-François Ratelle November 03, 2022 RM Exclusives
Its main focus has been targeting pro-Russian collaborators and disrupting Russian military logistics, not engaging in head-on confrontations with Moscow’s forces.
podcast

What the Experts Got Wrong (and Right) About Russian Military Power

Christopher Dougherty, Gian Gentile, Michael Kofman, Dara Massicot and Ryan Evans May 30, 2022 Recommended Reads
It is now widely understood that many observers, in advance of this war, over-estimated Russian military performance and underestimated Ukrainian military performance.
issue brief

Why There Won’t Be a People’s Republic of Left-Bank Ukraine Just Yet

Simon Saradzhyan November 23, 2021 RM Exclusives
Putin may have lost patience with Zelenskiy, but he is unlikely to give marching orders to Russian troops until he exhausts options with Biden.
issue brief

The INF Quandary: Preventing a Nuclear Arms Race in Europe. Perspectives from the US, Russia and Germany

William Tobey, Pavel Zolotarev and Ulrich Kühn January 24, 2019 RM Exclusives
The 1987 INF Treaty now faces an existential threat that could lead to intermediate-range missiles targeting the entire European continent. Three experts weigh in on the consequences and prospects.
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.
report

Lessons from Russia's Operations in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine

Michael Kofman, Katya Migacheva, Brian Nichiporuk, Andrew Radin, Olesya Tkacheva and Jenny Oberholtzer May 01, 2017 Recommended Reads
Russia's military operation in 2014 to annex Crimea was a decisive and competent use of military force, while its campaign in the eastern part of Ukraine was ineffectually implemented but achieved its aim: political fragmentation of the country.
white paper

Russia and Cyber Operations: Challenges and Opportunities for the Next U.S. Administration

Ben Buchanan and Michael Sulmeyer December 13, 2016 Partner Posts
Highly potent Russia-linked cyber operations indicate that the U.S. will face an increasingly sophisticated and increasingly aggressive Russian cyber force, one that the incoming U.S. presidential administration should address as a key concern.