Paige, having many business connections in Russia, said in an interview with Bloomberg that the anti-Russian sanctions have frustrated potential deals, and a decline in the value of the shares of Gazprom, the holder of which he is.
The candidate in US presidents from Republican party Donald trump has appointed Paige as his adviser on foreign policy last week.
According to the investor, many of his partners and friends have suffered from the sanctions policy. “All hope for the emergence of opportunities to improve the situation,” he said.
In their publications in a peer-reviewed journal Global Policy, page criticized existing U.S. policy for adherence to the stereotypes of the cold war. According to him, his direct experience of working with Russian companies will give Trump the opportunity to obtain a more practical analysis than I can offer “people from far away, ensconced in their Washington think tanks”.
Responding to criticism related to his Russian business interests and the benevolent attitude to the Russian leadership, Paige explained that it is due to common opinion that there is “crooks and bad guys”. Adviser refused to go into detail about their political views, noting that his work with trump is just beginning. He stressed that his participation in the election campaign is unlikely to help him in his business, and one of the projects even have to put.
Paige is a graduate of the naval Academy USA. As told Bloomberg, he has worked in the office of arms control at the Pentagon and in the analytical centre “the Council on foreign relations”. He has three degrees, including doctor of philosophy obtained at the School of Oriental and African studies, University of London.
In 2000 Paige started to investment banking and went to work in Merrill Lynch. According to him, in 2004 he was sent to participate in the opening of the Moscow representative office of the Bank, when colleagues became aware of his relations with Ukrainian billionaire Victor Pinchuk.
In Russia, according to Bloomberg, Paige has established contacts with the leadership of “Gazprom”. According to him, he advised the group of the largest transactions of that period, including the purchase of a controlling stake in oil and gas project “Sakhalin-2”. He also helped Gazprom in attracting Western investors, participated in the organization of regular meetings with shareholders in London and new York, says the Agency.
Bloomberg notes that the former heads of the page in the Moscow branch of Merrill Lynch differently withdrew his work. For example, who headed the office of Bernie Sucher said was well aware of how “intertwined policy and energy”. Economist and former Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia Sergey Aleksashenko, also led the Merrill Lynch office in Moscow, described page as a budding banker, poorly versed in the host country. He called “amazing” appointment page Advisor to trump on foreign policy.
In Moscow, Paige worked until 2007 and returned to new York he founded his own company — Global Energy Capital. In the same year he tried to collect $1 billion to buy assets in Turkmenistan, but these plans were thwarted by the outbreak of the global financial crisis.
In recent years years, Paige, he said, has advised foreign investors in Russian assets. His partner in some deals, there was the former first Deputy head of financial-economic Department of “Gazprom” Sergei Yatsenko. According to him, Paige “understand what is happening in Russia”, and “does not fall into extremes”.
Yatsenko said that he, along with the page helped a Russian investor to make investments in the oil sector of Iraqi Kurdistan, and also to advise a Chinese investor who wanted to buy Russian oil assets in Eastern Siberia. Another project, according to Yatsenko, related to the development in Russia of transport on natural gas, perhaps in partnership with “Gazprom”, but because of the sanctions, the negotiations had to be postponed.
Bloomberg recalls that during his election campaign trump went contrary to a common position on Russia. In particular, he proposed to reduce US spending on NATO and to entrust the settlement of the situation in Ukraine to its allies. He also called Vladimir Putin a stronger leader than Barack Obama, but made a reservation that does not support the Russian President. Trump also said that if he wins the presidential election, he “would like to get along with Putin”.
Earlier media reported about another foreign policy adviser to trump, who advocated cooperation with Russia. At the end of February to the campaign team of the presidential candidate was joined by former head of Intelligence of the Ministry of defence of the USA Michael Flynn, who is considered a supporter of pragmatic relations with Russia in solving problems of world politics.
