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Asher Pirt gained an MA in Russian Studies from UCL SSEES. Asher served ten years in the Territorial Army. He writes on issues affecting various countries in the OSCE region. He has frequently served as an election observer. Asher is also interested in the history of GHQ Liaison Regiment (Phantom) and associated units.
Biography
Asher Pirt was educated at Wellington School Somerset. Asher is researching old boys of Wellington School who served in the Great War. Using a variety of sources, he is in the process of writing a short biographical entry concerning each old boy's service. It is hoped that the project will be completed by November 2014. A first draft of this book can be accessed here Asher hopes to turn his attention to those who served in the 1939-45 War following completion of the Great War project.
Asher studied politics at the University of Kent at Canterbury following a gap year in Russia, Kenya and Northern Ireland. His undergraduate dissertation was titled 'Post-Soviet Moldova and the problem of Transdniestrian secession'. This dissertation was based on extensive research in Tiraspol, Republic of Moldova. Asher gained an MA in Russian Studies from the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London. His MA Dissertation was on the subject of Russian reactions to political change in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan 2003-2005. Asher's MA dissertation analysed the reactions of the Russian leadership to political change in George, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. The dissertation was submitted as part of his MA degree at SSEES-UCL.
Asher has been a UK co-ordinator for the deployment of seconded Election Observers. He has been involved in twelve deployments of UK Election Observers to various countries throughout the OSCE ODIHR region. He has been fortunate to observe seven Elections with the OSCE/ODIHR in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (2011), the Russian Federation (2011), Republic of Moldova (2009), Republic of Tajikistan (2010) and Kyrgyz Republic (2009, 2010 and 2011).
Asher served ten years in the Territorial Army with operational experience in Northern Ireland. This has inspired him to write about a variety of military history related subjects. Asher conducts research into military history and writes books/articles on the subject. His main research project concerns GHQ Liaison Regiment, which is better known by its codename Phantom. He has authored various articles for Family Tree Magazine. He is also compiling a nominal rolls of all ranks West Somerset Yeomanry.
This is a selection of news organisations which have interviewed Asher regarding the situation in the OSCE region, which includes Russia and post Soviet central asia : CNN; 'Russia Today'; Russia Profile;The Week; Streetpress; Deutsche Welle; Trend; Today's Zaman; Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation; Voice of Russia