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

China and Russia: A Strategic Alliance in the Making

Graham T. Allison December 14, 2018 Recommended Reads
Defying the long-held convictions of Western analysts, and against huge structural differences, Beijing and Moscow are drawing closer together to meet what each sees as the "American threat."
explainer

The ‘Who, What, When’ of Russia Sanctions: A Cheat Sheet for Laymen

Alexey Eremenko September 26, 2018 RM Exclusives
This explainer spells out the major sanctions imposed on Russia by the U.S. and EU since 2014: who has been targeted; what behaviors are to be punished or deterred; what activities have been restricted; and for how long.
multimedia

Video: Russian Economic Challenge 2018

Carnegie Moscow Center September 20, 2018 Partner Posts
In September 2018, the Carnegie Moscow Center held its third annual Russian Economic Challenge conference. This two-day event focused on global inequality, the consequences for Russia and ways to overcome it. 
article

Russian Power Under Putin: Up and Down and Flatline

Andrew Kuchins August 22, 2018 RM Exclusives
While Moscow’s military power has grown considerably, Putin has not created the conditions crucial for sustained economic growth and the development of new commercial technologies.
research paper

China-Russia Relations: Same Bed, Different Dreams? Why Converging Interests Are Unlikely to Lead to a Full-Fledged Alliance

Simon Saradzhyan and Ali Wyne June 07, 2018 RM Exclusives
China and Russia’s shared interests have brought them closer together, but growing disparities between the two make a formal alliance unlikely, unless two conditions emerge—including a weakened, isolated Russia.
explainer

The Collapsing Russian Defense Budget and Other Fairy Tales

Michael Kofman May 22, 2018 RM Exclusives
Recent reports claiming Russia slashed defense spending by 20 percent from 2016 to 2017 are wrong, the author argues. They stem from a government decision to pay down old debt, not actual cuts to spending.
multimedia

Video: The Road to Unfreedom

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. May 18, 2018 Partner Posts
In his new book, The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America, Yale historian Timothy Snyder chronicles the troubling path of post-Cold War history that has led to the current state of global democratic crisis.
podcast

Putinomics

Sean's Russia Blog April 24, 2018
In this Sean's Russia Blog interview, host and Eurasia expert Sean Guillory speaks with international history professor Chris Miller about his new book, Putinomics: Power and Money in Resurgent Russia.
podcast

Of Gorbachev, and of Writing About Gorbachev

Center for Strategic and International Studies March 28, 2018 Partner Posts
In this episode of the Russian Roulette podcast, hosts and CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program experts Olga Oliker and Jeffrey Mankoff sit down with William Taubman to discuss the subject of his most recent biography, Mikhail Gorbachev.
podcast

Eurasian Enigma: Russian News Media and Elections With Anna Veduta

Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies March 27, 2018 Partner Posts
In this episode of the Eurasian Enigma, Anna Veduta, former press secretary for Alexei Navalny’s 2013 Moscow mayoral campaign, discusses how Russian-language independent media outlets struggle to survive both in Russia and abroad.
podcast

Russia's Long Hangover

Sean's Russia Blog March 23, 2018
In this Sean's Russia Blog interview, host and Eurasia expert Sean Guillory speaks with Shaun Walker about his new book and the role that memorializing World War II has played in Russian President Vladimir Putin's success in restoring Russia from the tumult of the 1990s.
podcast

Boris Savinkov and Russian Terrorism

Sean's Russia Blog March 19, 2018
In this episode of Sean's Russia Blog, host and Eurasia expert Sean Guillory speaks with Irina Meier about her work in exploring the development of Russian terrorism through the last two centuries and the birth of the modern terrorist in the Russian revolutionary period.