Brian is enrolled at School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies, part of University College London. Prior to this, he attained a B.A in History from Royal Holloway, University of London. He then spent the intervening years teaching English as a foreign language in Ukraine, Moldova and Kazakhstan.

Currently, he studies the Politics and Security issues of Eastern Europe/the former USSR, and I will be starting my second year in Moscow in September 2017. His research focuses on the informal interaction between the Kremlin and leading Russian oligarchs, with the aim of determining the extent to which the latter act as agents of the former: specifically concerning philanthropy, political participation, and corporate takeovers.