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.
survey

Survey: Tips for President Trump Ahead of His First Meeting With Putin

RM Experts July 03, 2017 RM Exclusives
What should be at the top of the two leaders’ agenda? Avoiding war, bolstering arms control, cooperating on counter-terrorism, Ukraine … and not getting their hopes too high.
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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.
explainer

25 Years of Nuclear Security Cooperation by the US, Russia and Other Newly Independent States: A Timeline

Mariana Budjeryn, Simon Saradzhyan and William Tobey June 16, 2017 RM Exclusives
At a time when the U.S. and the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union still saw each other as mortal enemies, they found the courage, creativity and capacity for trust to work together in the name of preventing nuclear catastrophe.
Competing Views on Russia

Brzezinski on Russia: Insights and Recommendations

RM Staff June 01, 2017 RM Exclusives
The former presidential advisor on national security retained a deep skepticism about Russia’s aims and intentions, even when calling on the U.S. to integrate it into the West.
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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.
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For Russia and America, Election Interference Is Nothing New: 25 Stories

Arjun Kapur and Simon Saradzhyan March 22, 2017 RM Exclusives
As headlines scream about Russia’s “unprecedented” interference in U.S. politics, it’s helpful to get some historical perspective on how often countries try to tinker with each other’s elections.
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Dangerous Expectations

Paul Saunders March 17, 2017 RM Exclusives
Could new and lower Russian expectations for U.S.-Russia relations limit U.S. leverage?
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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.
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25 Years After the Collapse of the Soviet Union: What Comes Next?

RM staff December 08, 2016 RM Exclusives
Graham Allison, Niall Ferguson, Mary Elise Sarotte and Arne Westad consider the fall of the USSR as “applied history,” pondering what went right, what went wrong and what policymakers can learn.