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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For Washington, Russia Makes Afghanistan Mess Even Messier

Jeffrey Mankoff June 14, 2017 RM Exclusives
As U.S. military efforts meet with little success, Russia has taken a much more active approach to Afghanistan, building bridges with the Taliban and hoping to enhance its role in the region.
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 Sino-Russian Military-Political Alliance Would Be Bad News for America

Simon Saradzhyan May 12, 2017 RM Exclusives
Vladimir Putin’s visit to Beijing signals growing Russian support for China’s OBOR initiative and even the far-off prospect of a Sino-Russian alliance. America would be wise to gently pull Moscow from Beijing’s embrace.
explainer

Russian Defense Spending: Tricky Math

Olga Oliker April 26, 2017 RM Exclusives
With Russia flexing its military muscle, analysts are increasingly interested in how much Moscow is spending on weapons. This explainer lays out the factors that make those numbers hard to crunch.
explainer

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.
event summary

Russian Cyber Operations: 2017 and Beyond

RM Staff February 08, 2017 RM Exclusives
As Russian cyber-ops continue to grab headlines and defy easy explanation, eminent experts David Sanger, Fiona Hill and Ben Buchanan shed light on some of the murkier parts of this unfolding story.
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A Strategic Response to the Russian Hacking Affair

Rolf Mowatt-Larssen December 22, 2016 RM Exclusives
The response to Russia’s alleged hacking must not be hasty. The whole affair may even help craft some much needed rules of the cyber game—but only if we keep a realistic view of Russia’s perspective.