donald trump. page was nope for as a businessman than a foreign policy expert. he is an energy exec tiff and former investment banker with ties to russia. he lived in moscow for three years while working for merrill lynch. during that time he worked as an adviser to gas prom, the russian-controlled energy giant now run by a former aide of vladimir putin when he was the mayor of st. petersburg in the 1990s. in 2008, page came back to new york and founded his own company, global energy cap tam llc. page also started writing columns for global policy and academic journal where he was critical of sanctions. and of the obama administration's relationship with russia. three months after page is named as one of trump's adviser he attended a meeting of foreign policy experts in washington and according to "the washington post" he stunned the crowd by praising russian president vladimir putin, also saying a trump presidency would be good for u.s. russia relations. a month later page was in moscow