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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Russian Women in the Face of War Against Ukraine

Egle E. Murauskaite March 26, 2024 Partner Posts
Russia’s war against Ukraine has revealed stories about the heroic resistance efforts of Ukrainian women, but comparable stories have been entirely lacking on Russia’s side.
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Putin’s Favorite “Project Managers” Could Become a Risk to the Regime

Andrey Pertsev December 05, 2023 Recommended Reads
Enterprising and competent officials know full well they can survive without Putin. Whether the regime can survive without them, though, is another matter.
Competing Views on Russia

William Burns on Russia

Daniel Shapiro and RM Staff September 19, 2023 RM Exclusives
What has the CIA director said on Russia? Check out our compilation for some of Burns' observations and policy ideas regarding Russia.
policy brief

Advancing in Adversity: Ukraine’s Battlefield Technologies and Lessons for the U.S.

Grace Jones, Janet Egan and Eric Rosenbach July 31, 2023 Partner Posts
Ukraine’s use of modified commercial aerial and naval drones, new satellite and artificial intelligence capabilities and social media has given Ukraine an edge which has implications for current and future conflicts.
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Prigozhin’s Mutiny by the Hour

Mikael Pir-Budagyan and RM Staff July 26, 2023 RM Exclusives
Russia Matters has put together a timeline of the real-time daily developments throughout June 2023, including reactions to the mutiny, which has posed the greatest security threat to Vladimir Putin’s Russia in 23 years.
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Biden Must Heed JFK’s Lessons on Rolling Back Nuclear Dangers

Matthew Bunn June 10, 2023 Recommended Reads
On its 60th anniversary, Americans ought to remember President John F. Kennedy’s “A Strategy of Peace” speech and the positive diplomatic efforts it unleashed.
Clues from Russian Views

Russia's Prime Minister Mishustin: A Quiet Technocrat Who Toes the Line and Gets Results

Yana Demeshko, Natasha Yefimova-Trilling and Ingrid Burke Friedman May 11, 2023 RM Exclusives
Though he’s no warmonger, Mishustin has stayed in his post and not challenged the Kremlin’s messaging on the war in Ukraine.
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Rattling the Nuclear Saber: What Russia’s Nuclear Threats Really Mean

Lauren Sukin May 04, 2023 Recommended Reads
It is precisely because of, and not in spite of, the fact that Moscow and Pyongyang have repeatedly held their nuclear arsenals over Western heads that leaders should take these threats seriously.
Clues from Russian Views

Divided in the Face of Defeat: The Schism Forming in the Russian Elite

Tatiana Stanovaya December 13, 2022 Recommended Reads
Russia is heading toward a final battle between the radicals, for whom escalation is a way of life, and the realists, who understand that continuing to up the ante could lead to their country’s collapse.
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Russia vs Europe: Who Is Winning the Energy War?

Li-Chen Sim November 23, 2022 RM Exclusives
Some declare Moscow the victor. Others claim not only that this is a “myth” but that Russia faces “economic oblivion.” Who’s right depends on the time horizon.
Clues from Russian Views

The Importance of Being Russian: Can Belarus Survive the Kremlin’s War Against Ukraine?

Maxim Samorukov November 03, 2022 Recommended Reads
The war has left Belarus in a predicament, which boils down to depending on Russia for everything without enjoying the advantages of being part of Russia.
Clues from Russian Views

The World According to Patrushev

Simon Saradzhyan and Angelina Flood October 07, 2022 RM Exclusives
Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of Russia’s Security Council, often comes up when discussion turns to possible Putin successors. Check out our compilation for some of his views on issues that impact important U.S. interests.