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.
report

Damage Assessment: EU-Russia Relations in Crisis

Łukasz Kulesa, Ivan Timofeev and Joseph Dobbs June 15, 2017 Partner Posts
Russian and European experts offer their analysis on fundamental aspects of deteriorating EU-Russia relations.
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.
interview

Putin as Bismarck: Ehud Barak on West’s Russia Blind Spots, the Middle East and More

RM staff November 28, 2016 RM Exclusives
In this far-ranging interview Israel’s former PM and defense minister gives his views on Russian-Western tensions, President Vladimir Putin, Syria, ISIS and much more.
policy brief

The Strategic Case for EU-Russia Cooperation

Joseph Dobbs and Ian Kearns July 25, 2016 Partner Posts
Despite current tensions between Russia and the EU, a more cooperative relationship is both desirable and necessary, as its absence could see both sides’ strengths diminished and weaknesses exacerbated.
report

The Russian "Firehose of Falsehood" Propaganda Model

Christopher Paul and Miriam Matthews July 11, 2016 Partner Posts
The contemporary Russian propaganda model is high-volume, multichannel, rapid, continuous and repetitive. The very factors that make this model successful also make it difficult to counter. While traditional counterpropaganda approaches are likely to be inadequate, more effective solutions can be found in the same psychology literature that explains the surprising success of this phenomenon.
column

Why Arming Kiev is a Really, Really Bad Idea

Stephen M. Walt February 09, 2015
Arming Ukraine will simply intensify the conflict and add to the suffering of the Ukrainian people.