Career
Following his graduation, Page served in the navy for 5 years, from 1993 to 1998. He earned an MA in 'National Security Studies' from 'Georgetown University' in 1994.
Page’s missions included touring the Middle East and Europe several times (as a surface war officer) and Western Morocco (as an intelligence officer) with the ‘United Nations’ peacekeeping mission.
He had an 18-month stint at the ‘Pentagon,’ as the navy’s working group representative on nuclear non-proliferation matters. After becoming a lieutenant, he quit the navy in 1998 but continued to be a member of the navy’s inactive service till 2004.
Immediately after quitting the navy, he completed a fellowship at the 'Council on Foreign Relations,' where he handled the responsibility of energy-related research in the Caspian Sea region.
He began his corporate career in 1998, with ‘Eurasia Group,’ a strategy consulting firm that advises banks and multinational corporations, but stayed there only for 3 months.
Page’s big corporate career break came in 2000, when he grabbed the opportunity to work with ‘Merrill Lynch’ as an investment banker in their London office. He moved to Moscow to open 'Merrill Lynch’s office. According to Page, he worked on projects with ‘Gazprom,’ ‘RAO UES,’ and other Russian energy companies.
He returned to the US as the chief operating officer of the ‘Energy and Power’ department in New York. In 2001, he secured an MBA from the ‘Stern School of Business’ at ‘New York University.’
He left ‘Merrill Lynch’ in 2008 and founded ‘Global Energy Capital’ with James Richard. It is an investment and consulting firm with interests in the energy sector, especially in the emerging markets.
In 2012, he received a PhD degree from ‘SOAS University of London’ but only after his thesis was rejected twice and finally accepted by the new examiners.
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Page shot to fame when Donald Trump mentioned in March 2016 that he was one of his foreign-policy advisors and part of his 2016 election campaign team. However, after Page’s Russian connections became public, he had to quit the campaign.
‘Yahoo News’ reported that US agencies had investigated Page for allegedly being in touch with Russian government officials, including Igor Sechin, an important advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin and the president of ‘Rosneft,’ a Russian government-owned oil conglomerate.
In October 2016, the ‘Federal Bureau of Investigation’ (FBI) obtained a warrant under the 'Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act' (initially for 90 days) that authorized the ‘FBI’ to go through Page’s communications and mails. The warrant was later extended until October 2017.
Trump’s campaign team has distanced themselves from Page. Some reports suggest that he was never even part of the team.
In 2017, Ian Bremmer, the founder-president of ‘Eurasia,’ tweeted that Page’s Russia-favoring views were not aligned with the broader interests of the company. Gradually, Page grew critical of the USA’s foreign policy toward Russia and backed Putin more. The Russian media considers him a renowned American economist.
In January 2017, Page’s name repeatedly appeared in the ‘Trump-Russia Dossier,’ also known as the 'Steele Dossier,' accusing him of being party to interactions between Trump and Kremlin. By this time, even the ‘Central Intelligence Agency,’ the ‘National Security Agency,’ the Director of National Intelligence, and the ‘Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’ had him under their watch.
The dossier claimed that Page had an arrangement with Sechin. According to the alleged agreement, if Page worked in favor of the withdrawal of the ‘Magnitsky Act’ economic sanctions imposed on Russia in 2012, Sechin was supposed to offer a brokerage fee from the sale of a certain number of stakes in ‘Rosneft.’ It also alleged that Page had confirmed that lifting the sanctions was in Trump’s interest and not based on his suggestion.
In 2017, there were reports that in 2013, Russian intelligence operatives had tried to recruit Page. According to Victor Podobnyy, one of the agents, Page was offered a lot in exchange for his services. Also, the same year, reports suggested that because of his alleged interactions with Russian operatives, including Podobnyy, Evgeny Buryakov, and Igor Sporyshev, Page was subject to warrant, for the first time, in accordance with the 'Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act,' in 2014, 2 years before the Trump campaign.
On November 2, 2017, Page testified before the 'House Intelligence Committee.' According to the same, he kept the concerned authorities in the Trump campaign informed about his Russian connections and reported about the meetings with Russian government officials via email.
Page also made contradictory statements, saying he had not met any official from the Russian Government. However, in his testimony, he revealed that he had met Arkady Dvorkovich , the deputy prime minister in Dmitry Medvedev’s cabinet.
Toward the middle of 2018, the ‘Department of Justice’ released a highly redacted report of the ‘FISA’ warrant application for Page. It partially mentioned the ‘FBI’ theory that the Russian Government was discussing with Page and possibly with others who were part of Trump’s campaign team. It also mentions that Russian intelligence agencies were targeting Page for recruitment.
The ‘Mueller Report,’ released on April 18, 2019, reported that Page’s testimony was confusing, inconsistent, and lacked clarity. It also noted that his relations in Russia were not strong and that he had no influence.
