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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Whenever America Is in Crisis, Russia Is Its Whipping Boy

Ivan Kurilla December 05, 2017 Recommended Reads
History shows how anti-Russia sentiment rises when the U.S. is at a low.
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What Does Putin Want? To Maintain His Power No Matter What Democracy

William E. Pomeranz October 30, 2017 Recommended Reads
If Putin’s victory in the March 2018 election is big, it would also be a triumph for the Russian autocratic state.
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How US Policy Contributed to the Rise of President Vladimir Putin

Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey October 26, 2017 Partner Posts
In this talk, veteran journalist Vladimir Pozner argues that the U.S.-Russia relationship is as bad now as it was during the height of the Cold War, if not worse.
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Russian Studies Is Thriving, Not Dying

Timothy Frye October 03, 2017 Recommended Reads
“Russian studies is dying” has become a common assertion. However, in the field of political science, this doesn't seem to be the case.
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Brains, Not Oil, Should Fuel Russia’s Economy

John Thornhill October 02, 2017 Recommended Reads
Artificial intelligence could be a lucrative sector for Russia, but only if Russia allows greater freedom of creativity.
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Video: New US Sanctions on Russia

Center for the National Interest August 14, 2017 Partner Posts
Former officials from the Bush and Obama administrations discuss the impact and implications of the new Russia sanctions bill.
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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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Russia’s New and Unrealistic Naval Doctrine

Dmitry Gorenburg July 26, 2017 Recommended Reads
Russia's new naval doctrine reveals a wide gap “between aspiration and feasible plans.”
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To Punish Putin, Economic Sanctions Are Unlikely to Do the Trick

Eduardo Porter July 25, 2017 Recommended Reads
Ambitious sanctions aimed at powerful countries with autocratic governments have a poor track record of success.
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Why Forecasts of a Chinese Takeover of the Russian Far East Are Just Dramatic Myth

Alexander Gabuev and Maria Repnikova July 14, 2017 Recommended Reads
Reports of mounting tensions between Moscow and Beijing are not rooted in ground realities but on faulty assumptions about China-Russia relations.
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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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Ukraine Between Russia and the West Buffer or Flashpoint?

Thomas Graham, Rajan Menon and Jack Snyder April 24, 2017 Partner Posts
Ukraine's domestic turmoil and relations with Russia, the U.S., and Europe may not make it an ideal candidate for a buffer state, but that outcome could be better than the other alternatives.