Carter Page, who Donald Trump once named as one of his foreign policy advisers before reports surfaced that U.S. intelligence officials were looking into his ties to the Kremlin, recently penned an op-ed for a Russian state-controlled media outlet arguing that the United States shows "complete disregard" for Moscow’s interests.
The op-ed, first reported by Politico, was published in Sputnik this week. Page chastised the United States in the piece for interfering in the "democratic processes" of Russia’s neighbors, including Ukraine, and urged Washington to adopt a strategy of "mutual respect" with Moscow to ease current tensions.
"In contrast to the idea of mutual respect, the U.S. government’s actions in the domestic democratic processes of Russia’s neighboring states stand as a primary example of interference in the international arena," Page wrote. "Among the national interests of Moscow and in light of continued instability, Ukraine has risen as a primary example of these same trends. While no simple answer to these problems exist, a complete disregard for Russia’s interests further increases the expected longevity of today’s downward trajectory."
The United States and other Western powers have refused to recognize Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, and NATO has responded to Moscow’s intervention in Ukraine by bolstering its forces on the alliance’s eastern flank.
Page, who has business interests in Russia, has previously come under scrutiny for seemingly favorable statements about Russia and criticism of U.S. foreign policy. During a lecture delivered in Moscow this summer, which Page highlighted in his recent op-ed, he criticized the United States and other Western nations for their "hypocritical focus on ideas such as democratization, inequality, corruption, and regime change" in other countries.
Page has also penned several essays for the Global Policy Journal that have negatively characterized U.S. foreign policy, particularly that toward Russia regarding its intervention in Ukraine and annexation of Crimean. Page has also written critically of NATO.
Trump first named Page as a member of his foreign policy team in a March interview with the Washington Post. The campaign subsequently described him as an "informal" adviser, and days after news broke that U.S. intelligence officials were looking into possible connections between Page and the Kremlin, a Trump campaign official denied him being part of the campaign.
Page addressed the probe in his op-ed, writing that "some U.S. congressional leaders have called for a farcical federal investigation of my actions on unfounded, spurious grounds."
Tensions between Moscow and Washington have recently been exacerbated by the breakdown of talks regarding the ongoing civil war in Syria, in which Russia has staged a military intervention to prop up President Bashar al-Assad. Russia last week also suspended a nuclear treaty with the United States aimed at disposing of weapons-grade plutonium.
Additionally, the U.S. government has accused Moscow of hacking into U.S. political institutions, including the Democratic National Committee, to influence the presidential election.
"Among the latest steps in an ongoing downward path of bilateral relations, the disintegration of a treaty on the disposal of plutonium marks yet another low after the end of the first Cold War," Page wrote in Sputnik. "Meanwhile, negotiations on Syria came to an abrupt end. Further progress in this perilous direction can only be expected without a change of tactics."
He warned the United States to embrace "respect, not provocation" in its interactions with Russia.
Other individuals connected to the Trump campaign have been scrutinized for ties to Moscow, including Paul Manafort, who resigned as campaign chair in August after reports shed light on his work for pro-Russian Ukrainian oligarchs.
Trump has repeatedly made positive statements about Vladimir Putin, who he has described as a strong leader, though he has denied having a relationship with the Russian president.