Brian's research is focused on Russian elite politics and the development of the Russian state, with particular attention to state coercive organizations, such as the military and the police. He is the author of four books on Russian politics: Russian Politics: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2024); The Code of Putinism (Oxford University Press, 2018); State Building in Putin’s Russia: Policing and Coercion After Communism (Cambridge University Press, 2011); and Politics and the Russian Army: Civil-Military Relations,1689-2000 (Cambridge University Press, 2003).
