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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Ukraine War Compels Bundeswehr to Refocus and Rebuild, but at Too Slow a Pace

Erich Vad April 20, 2023 RM Exclusives
In the past, Germany believed it could afford to neglect national and NATO defense because the threat situation was quite different. In retrospect, this was politically short-sighted.
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Germany’s New-Old Approach to Russia: Strong in Rhetoric But Weak in Substance?

Liana Fix November 18, 2021 RM Exclusives
To understand Germany’s future approach to Russia, look beyond it. Security and energy policy, more than foreign policy alone, will play an important role, and the repercussions of decisions in these areas will affect Russia’s leverage toward Europe.
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Biden's Moscow Outreach Exposes Europe's Disarray

Philip Stephens July 07, 2021 RM Exclusives
In the aftermath of the Geneva summit, the Biden administration is likely to be at once dismayed by the European Union's public display of disunity and privately relieved that its own efforts to set the terms of a different relationship with Putin will not be complicated by a parallel Franco-German initiative.
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Gangster Geopolitics: The Kremlin’s Use of Criminals as Assets Abroad

Mark Galeotti January 17, 2019 RM Exclusives
Since the worsening of relations with the West in 2014, the Kremlin has increasingly adopted a “mobilization state” approach, turning to any available foreign-policy levers. Gangsters are no exception.
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Nuclear Dangers from North Korea: Managing the Risks to the US and Russia

Joshua H. Pollack October 27, 2017 RM Exclusives
The risk of an American conflict with North Korea is growing, and along with it so is the risk of an accidental war between the two nuclear superpowers.
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Russia’s Plan B: Divide and Conquer?

Nikolas Gvosdev July 28, 2017 RM Exclusives
At the start of 2017, Putin’s election-related gambles appeared to be paying off. By summer, the apparent wins had all gone bust. Moscow’s next step? Probably trying to split the U.S. and its Western partners on questions of Russia policy.
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Russia Looks Out for Own Interests in Europe’s Elections But Risks Long-Term Blowback

Yuval Weber April 19, 2017 RM Exclusives
Liberals worry about Russian meddling in elections from France to Bulgaria. But Moscow didn’t create Euro-skepticism; it's just good at exploiting existing fissures in Western societies—and has been for a long time. Here's where that may lead.
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Looking for U.S.-Russian Cooperation? Try Asia

Jeffrey Mankoff December 12, 2016 RM Exclusives
U.S.-Russian ties in Asia have long been underdeveloped, but also far less contentious than in Europe. Maybe now is the time to focus eastward and help Moscow balance between Washington and Beijing.
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