A top strategist to one of President Donald Trump’s potential Republican primary rivals confirmed to BuzzFeed News Wednesday night that he plans to lobby against possible sanctions against Russia — a stance blatantly at odds with the anti-Trump movement.

John Weaver, who has advised former Ohio governor John Kasich since Kasich’s unsuccessful 2016 bid for president, said in a series of text messages that he understands the news, first reported by Politico, “is counterintuitive and confusing.”

Politico reported earlier Wednesday that Weaver recently had signed a six-month, $350,000 contract to lobby for a subsidiary of Rosatom, a Russian state-owned nuclear energy company. The contract calls for Weaver to lobby Congress and the Trump administration on “sanctions or other restrictions in the area of atomic (nuclear) energy, trade or cooperation involving in any way the Russian Federation,” according to a disclosure filing Politico referenced.

Weaver has been on record in the past — especially on Twitter, which he has used to promote Kasich as a possible 2020 candidate — favoring Russian sanctions, criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime, and tearing into Trump for being too cozy with Putin.