https://twitter.com/LouisJMarinelli/status/810460540535500800
The last time we heard from the so-called “Calexit” movement, a pro-secession political drive in California spearheaded by the Yes California Independence Campaign, they were seriously considering their options following Donald Trump’s election victory. Now it seems the state-bound secessionists have made the first move, as the Los Angeles Times reports members of the group based in Moscow have opened what they’re claiming is a soon-to-be independent California’s Russian embassy.
San Diego resident and Yes California leader Louis Marinelli organized the event and publicized it across social media over the weekend, describing it as a “presentation to the press at the opening of the Embassy of the Independent Republic of California.” In a subsequent email to the LAT, Marinelli said the group “[wants] to start laying the groundwork for a dialogue about an independent California joining the United Nations now.”
The main thrust of Yes California’s primary objective involves their plan to get an official measure on the 2018 ballot polling residents about whether or not they would prefer to leave the United States of America altogether. Whether or not this will actually happen remains to be seen, but the opening of the group’s supposed “embassy” seems more far-fetched than not:
Marinelli told Business Insider the resource center will educate Russian locals on Californian history and culture, foster trade relations, and encourage tourism. He said that the embassy will not actually conduct diplomatic affairs, but will serve as a promotional front for Calexit.
Business Insider notes that Marinelli and his associates’ efforts in Russia are getting a lot of attention by the state-run media. According to Russian expert Robert English, who serves as deputy director of the University of Southern California’s School of International Relations, this suggests the Russia media may only be covering the matter to “exploit existing tensions in Western and US society.” He even went so far as to call the reporting “propaganda.”
Whether or not this proves to be true, Marinelli seems more focused on Yes California’s goal than Russia’s potentially steering it to its own advantage. “We don’t have a problem with me being in Russia,” he explained, “or signing an agreement with a group in Russia. It sounds kind of controversial, but we want California to become an independent country and we’re not going to hold any punches to make that happen.”
(Via Los Angeles Times and Business Insider)