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

Putin’s Rationality and Escalation in Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

Kimberly Marten March 09, 2022 Recommended Reads
To understand whether Putin is likely to attack a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member-state or use nuclear weapons, it is helpful to consider a standard social science definition of rationality.
article

Strategic Folly in Ukraine: A War That Putin Cannot Win

Lawrence Freedman March 03, 2022 Recommended Reads
From the start, the Russian campaign has been hampered by political objectives that cannot be translated into meaningful military objectives.
article

What’s Eating Putin?

Rose Gottemoeller March 03, 2022 Recommended Reads
As horrific and needless violence unfolds in Ukraine, my friends, family, colleagues, and media from around the world have all been asking the same questions: What’s eating Putin?
article

The Bully in the Bubble

Adam E. Casey and Seva Gunitsky February 04, 2022 Recommended Reads
Putin and the perils of information isolation.
debate

The Future of Russia

Thomas Graham, George Beebe, Steven Pifer and Michael McFaul March 01, 2021 Recommended Reads
In this four-part debate, Thomas Graham, George Beebe, Steven Pifer and Michael McFaul discuss the future of Russia and drivers of possible change.
article

Dueling for the Soul of Russia

Peter Rutland February 03, 2021 Recommended Reads
Navalny’s battle of wills with Putin is not likely to end well – at least in the short term. But his very existence serves as a moral rebuke: a symbol of the Russia that might yet be.
article

Navalny’s Bravery Is Unlikely to Shift Putin’s Entrenched Power

Jeff Hawn January 25, 2021 Recommended Reads
While Alexei Navalny’s return to Russia following his poisoning with Novichok five months prior was a brave act, it has almost no chance of immediately deposing the current regime.
article

Putin, Putinism and the Domestic Determinants of Russian Foreign Policy

Michael McFaul October 19, 2020 Partner Posts
For a complete understanding of Russian foreign policy today, individuals, ideas, and institutions—President Vladimir Putin, Putinism, and autocracy—must be added to the analysis. Putin's ideas about illiberalism, orthodoxy, sovereignty and the West shaped his decision-making in unique ways. 
article

Russia’s Coronavirus Response Reveals Its Strengths and Weaknesses

Judy Twigg April 11, 2020 Recommended Reads
Some of Russia’s inherent structural and demographic factors may help it cope. Others put it at a disadvantage.
article

Could the Coronavirus Destabilize Russia?

Nikolas K. Gvosdev April 06, 2020 Recommended Reads
There is a very real fear that the virus will overwhelm a brittle and underfunded health system. Combined with an economic shock, that could shake up the Russian political system.
article

Piketty on Eurasia

Ivan U. Klyszcz March 10, 2020 Recommended Reads
Every society in history has justified inequality. In today’s Russia the ideological framework was adopted in a hurry, argues the famed economist.
article

A Demographic Trap and Low Growth Are Putin’s Biggest Challenges

John Dizard January 17, 2020 Recommended Reads
Despite Western expectations of reports of doom and gloom from Russia, the country is in fact adopting expansionary economic and social policies that appear to be financially sustainable.
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