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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Our National Obsession With Russia Is Preventing Sane Debate

Eugene Rumer January 22, 2018 Recommended Reads
Saying Russia doesn't matter simply isn't true anymore.
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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."
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Putin’s Peacekeepers: Beware of Russians Bearing Gifts

Fredrik Wesslau September 11, 2017 Partner Posts
The Russian president's proposal for a U.N. peacekeeping force in eastern Ukraine could be a trap—or it could provide a means of de-escalating the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
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The US Sanctions Bill Is a Win for Russia

Angela Stent July 28, 2017 Recommended Reads
The EU may rethink its own sanctions regime if the U.S. sanctions bill moves forward. This, of course, would be good news for the Kremlin.
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Survey: Tips for President Trump Ahead of His First Meeting With Putin

RM Experts July 03, 2017 RM Exclusives
What should be at the top of the two leaders’ agenda? Avoiding war, bolstering arms control, cooperating on counter-terrorism, Ukraine … and not getting their hopes too high.
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.
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Is NATO Getting Too Big to Succeed?

Charles Kupchan May 25, 2017 Recommended Reads
The alliance's practice of anchoring new democracies to the Atlantic community by absorbing them into NATO has backfired.
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Donald Trump’s Plan to Play Russia Against China Is a Fool’s Errand

Alexander Gabuev May 24, 2017 Recommended Reads
While the Trump administration may be trying out triangular diplomacy, a grand bargain with the U.S. on China is unlikely to sway Putin.
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The Foreign Policy Price of Trump’s Russia Scandal

Robert E. Hunter May 23, 2017 Recommended Reads
In the current maelstrom of U.S. domestic politics, it will be virtually impossible for the United States to do what’s needed to promote its interests regarding Russia and related security issues.
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These Two Former Intelligence Chiefs Differ Sharply on Russia and Trump

Paul J. Saunders May 15, 2017 Recommended Reads
Former U.S. intelligence chiefs James Clapper and Robert Gates are a study in contrasts in how they how they view Russia's efforts to interfere in the 2016 election and wider relations between the countries.
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New Allies for a New World

Stephen Kinzer May 14, 2017 Recommended Reads
In a world of three great powers, a future U.S.-Russia partnership against China is possible.
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A Sino-Russian Military-Political Alliance Would Be Bad News for America

Simon Saradzhyan May 12, 2017 RM Exclusives
Vladimir Putin’s visit to Beijing signals growing Russian support for China’s OBOR initiative and even the far-off prospect of a Sino-Russian alliance. America would be wise to gently pull Moscow from Beijing’s embrace.