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.
article

Taking the Edge off U.S.-Russia Strategic Relations

Steven Pifer June 16, 2017 RM Exclusives
Now that the U.S. and Russia have agreed to resume talks on strategic stability, they should begin them as soon as possible in order to prevent a conflict with dire consequences.
article

A Strategy for (Modestly Increasing the Chance of) Saving the INF Treaty

James M. Acton May 11, 2017 RM Exclusives
While it’s highly unlikely that Russia will return to compliance with the INF Treaty, the U.S. should make every effort to save the agreement by creating three realities that Moscow can’t ignore.
article

The Russian Defense Budget and You

Michael Kofman March 17, 2017 Recommended Reads
Russia's 2017 defense budget is smaller than last year's, but the reduction is not quite as drastic as some interpretations indicate.
article

Russia's Missile Gamble: Is the INF Treaty Dead?

William McHenry March 09, 2017
Moscow will likely continue to cheat on the INF Treaty, but it's important to explore the root causes of Russian misbehavior.
article

INF, New Start and What Really Matters for US-Russian Nuclear Arms Control

Hans M. Kristensen February 24, 2017 RM Exclusives
The U.S. should not abandon nuclear arms control or relieve Russia from treaty obligations. Instead, it must maintain strategic stability with a mix of arms control and a safe, secure retaliatory capability.
article

The Trump Administration and Nuclear Arms Control Treaties

Steven Pifer December 02, 2016 Recommended Reads
Before backing away from any arms control agreements, the Trump administration should consider the consequences for U.S. national security. For one thing, the recommendations could prompt a new arms race—and give Russia a big head-start.
article

Putin’s Great Patriotic Pseudoscience

Maria Antonova November 29, 2016 Recommended Reads
The rise of pseudoscience is connected to Russia's growing isolation and nationalism.
article

A Tale of Two Statues: Putin, Stalin and Russia's Bloody Past

Alexander Baunov November 07, 2016 Recommended Reads
Many Russians want a ruler who shows kindness to the masses and a far less forgiving attitude toward elites; Putin's style of rule doesn't quite fit that model.
article

Reviving Arms Control in Europe

Frank-Walter Steinmeier August 26, 2016 Recommended Reads
With geopolitical tensions rising across Europe, European security needs to become a top priority once more.
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.
article

Can the US-Russia Plutonium Disposition Agreement Be Saved?

Pavel Podvig April 28, 2016
Scrapping the U.S.-Russian deal to dispose of weapon-grade plutonium would mean a long-term setback for nuclear nonproliferation efforts. But current tensions make a compromise ever more elusive.
article

Blurring the Line Between Nuclear and Nonnuclear Weapons: Increasing the Risk of Accidental Nuclear War?

Pavel Podvig April 15, 2016 Recommended Reads
Combining the controls for conventional and nuclear weapons into a single system, as Russia has done in recent years, increases the likelihood of accidental nuclear war.
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