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

Russia, the West and the ‘World Majority’

Angela Stent January 25, 2024 RM Exclusives
As Russia begins its one-year presidency of the BRICS this month, great power competition in the Global South, or what Russia now calls the “World Majority,” will intensify.
Competing Views on Russia

General David Petraeus on the Russia-Ukraine War

Kate Davidson, Conor Cunningham and RM Staff December 21, 2023 RM Exclusives
Petraeus shared with Harvard students, faculty and staff the insights he has outlined in his most recent book, co-authored with Andrew Roberts, "Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine."
article

For Putin, Winning is Not Everything in Russia’s Presidential Election

Thomas Graham December 20, 2023 RM Exclusives
The election is meant to showcase Putin’s mastery of the political system, and therefore his legitimacy; by extension, it will serve as a referendum on the war in Ukraine itself.
article

What Putin’s Unsurprising Re-Election Bid Means for Russia’s Future

Nikolas K. Gvosdev December 13, 2023 RM Exclusives
Putin wants the 2024 elections to confirm that he is the only option for seeing the Ukraine conflict to a successful close.
article

The Best Laid Plans: Putin’s Rogue Election Announcement

Andrey Pertsev December 13, 2023 Partner Posts
The president’s inclination to ignore his administration and act upon his own initiative is damaging to both himself and the power vertical he created.
article

Attitudes toward Russia’s War on Ukraine in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan

Hannah Chapman and Raushan Zhandayeva December 12, 2023 Partner Posts
How does the public in Central Asia view Russia’s war against Ukraine? This memo provides a preliminary examination of public attitudes toward the invasion in two Central Asian countries, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
article

Bureaucracy as the Pillar of Stability: Are There Any Real Institutions Inside the Russian Political Regime?

Ekaterina Schulmann December 08, 2023 Partner Posts
Russia’s ruling mechanism—bureaucratic institutions—may outlast the current personalism. This vast network of civil servants, technocrats and administrators forms a modestly resilient framework that endures beyond individual political decisions, providing continuity and ensuring the steady day-to-day functioning of the government.
article

Blood and Iron: How Nationalist Imperialism Became Russia’s State Ideology

Andrei Kolesnikov December 06, 2023 Partner Posts
The nationalist-imperialist worldview that the Putin regime is imposing on Russians is intended to feed on the past and exploit historical memories and concepts to reshape and manage the mass consciousness of the Russian people.
article

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.
article

PONARS Eurasia: Russian Military Keynesianism: Who Benefits from the War in Ukraine?

Volodymyr Ishchenko, Ilya Matveev and Oleg Zhuravlev December 05, 2023 Partner Posts
How has the transformation of the Russian economy and society in response to the challenges posed by the invasion of Ukraine affected popular support for the war?
article

Unfulfillable Promise: Mediation Efforts in the Russian-Ukrainian War Since 2014

Tetyana Malyarenko and Stefan Wolff December 05, 2023 Partner Posts
This memo is the first in a two-part assessment of the effectiveness of mediation in the RussianUkrainian war during its gray-zone (2014-2022) and conventional (2022-present) stages.
Competing Views on Russia

Kissinger on Russia: Insights and Recommendations

RM Staff and Associates December 01, 2023 RM Exclusives
In a compilation of remarks, newly updated following the eminent U.S. statesman's passing, Kissinger offers ways to reconcile America’s necessities with Russia’s concerns.
Refine & Filter

By Section

By Topic

By Country

By Regions

By Groups

By Genre