California Secession Advocate Faces Scrutiny Over Where Hes Based: Russia

[TomCADem]

Source: MSN/NY Times

YEKATERINBURG, Russia — This provincial Russian city, about 1,000 miles east of Moscow, is about as unlikely a place as any to find the leader of one of the more unlikely political causes to arise in opposition to President Trump. But Louis J. Marinelli, the 30-year-old English teacher who is the president of the Yes California movement, which seeks independence for the state, has decided to call it home.

Word of “Calexit,” a Quixotic idea that has floated around California for years, spread on social media after the election of Mr. Trump in November. Even though it has virtually no chance of succeeding — it would require an amendment to the Constitution — it has gained some traction in the state. Several technology industry leaders have voiced their support, and a ballot measure is in the works for the 2018 election.

Now with renewed attention on the movement, Mr. Marinelli is under scrutiny for living in a country that many in the United States see as an adversarial power.

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And back in California, he is on the defensive for accepting travel expenses and office space from a Kremlin-linked nationalist group. That acceptance has raised the prospect that Russia, after meddling in the election to try to tip the vote to Mr. Trump, as United States intelligence agencies have said, is now gleefully stoking divisions in America by backing a radical liberal movement.



Read more: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/california-secession-advocate-faces-scrutiny-over-where-he%E2%80%99s-based-russia/ar-AAnbjaX

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Trump and Republicans are increasingly liking Putin, but lets not forget that Russia is continuing to try to sow havok in the U.S. by promoting secession movements in both Texas and California.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/texas-california-separatists-attend-pro-kremlin-conference/story?id=42395066

Texas, California Separatists Attend Kremlin-Funded Conference

Nate Smith, executive director of the Texas Nationalist Movement, looked uncertain as a man identifying himself as an east Ukrainian resistance fighter pledged solidarity to Smith’s struggle for an independent Texas. Standing in a conference room in the Ritz Hotel in central Moscow on Sunday, Smith nodded noncommittally and handed over his business card.

It wasn’t the only incongruous encounter taking place at the Ritz at what has been dubbed Moscow’s international conference of separatists, an eclectic Kremlin-funded gathering of organizations and sometimes wacky individuals pressing for self-rule for often unlikely territories.

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And among the few dozen activists comparing ideas for how to achieve self-determination, were two Americans campaigning for Texan and Californian secession from the United States.

The conference, now in its second year, is funded largely by the Kremlin and organized by the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia, a group that closely follows government positions. The movement says it is unconnected to the Kremlin, but the hotel conference was almost entirely paid for by a charitable fund founded by President Vladimir Putin, which provided close to $546,000 for the project, according to public records. The attendees, including the Texan delegate, had been offered free flights and accommodation.