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.
primer

Russia’s Impact on US National Interests: Stability of the International Economy

Joseph Haberman December 21, 2020 RM Exclusives
Just like the U.S., Moscow has a vested interest in global economic stability. But U.S. policymakers should not ignore Russia’s role as a potential disrupter.
issue brief

Why Does Congress Not Care About Normalizing Relations With Russia?

Daniel Shapiro and Arthur Martirosyan February 26, 2020 RM Exclusives
There are several major reasons why, whether under the Clinton, Bush, Obama or Trump administrations, Capitol Hill has been reluctant to normalize relations with Russia and even at times hit the brakes on reset attempts.
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The Problem With Fearmongering About Russian Electoral Interference

Joseph Haker and Andrew Paul February 24, 2020 Recommended Reads
Blaming outsiders distracts attention from the very real domestic problems that make "disinformation" campaigns coherent in the first place.
Competing Views on Russia

John Mearsheimer on Russia: Insights and Recommendations

Thomas Schaffner September 26, 2019 RM Exclusives
When Americans find their domestic politics the target of foreign interference, "they become deeply committed to the principle of self-determination." Not surprisingly, writes leading American international relations scholar John Mearsheimer, "so do the Russians."
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Russia’s FDI Outlook Grim, with No Chinese Rescue in Sight

Nicholas Trickett July 11, 2019 RM Exclusives
Investment in Russia has plummeted for many reasons, both in and out of Moscow’s control. Meanwhile, the country is drifting toward an increasingly closed economy, with interest groups jostling for pieces of the state-funded pie.
article

Can Washington and Moscow Agree to Limit Political Interference?

Samuel Charap and Ivan Timofeev June 13, 2019 Recommended Reads
The concept of elaborating norms of non-interference on a mutual basis might be the best way to stabilize U.S.-Russian relations and prevent the damaging episodes of recent years from happening again.
article

The Folly of ‘Russiagate’

Stephen Kinzer April 04, 2019 Recommended Reads
The election of U.S. President Donald Trump was not, we now learn, the result of a conspiracy directed from Moscow. But this finding by special prosecutor Robert Mueller will change few minds: once again, as in the 1950s, everything is Russia’s fault—no matter what Mueller says.
article

Russian Sanctions: Why ‘Isolation Is Impossible'

Henry Foy November 12, 2018 Recommended Reads
Countries throughout Asia, the Middle East and even Europe continue to do business with Russia despite U.S. efforts to isolate Moscow.
article

US Sanctions Against Russia: What You Need to Know

Cyrus Newlin and Jeffrey Mankoff October 31, 2018 Recommended Reads
While Washington clearly intends to continue using sanctions as a primary means of confronting Russia, it is less apparent what the various sanctions imposed since 2012 have done to change Russian behavior.
article

Stumbling Toward Armageddon

Sergei Radchenko October 09, 2018 Recommended Reads
What the U.S. had thought was a Soviet attempt to subvert American influence during the Yom Kippur War in 1973 was actually a case of bad crisis management, newly declassified documents suggest.
article

New Sanctions Won’t Hurt Russia

Andrey Movchan September 26, 2018 Recommended Reads
Moscow's foreign currency reserves are at an all-time high, and the falling value of the ruble has actually been a boon for Russia's state budget.
article

The Rise of Authoritarian Capitalism

Kevin Rudd September 16, 2018 Recommended Reads
As democratic capitalism begins to show signs of sickness, on offer are other modes of governance, including Russian nationalism and China's model of authoritarian capitalism.
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