Why Russia Loves the Idea of California Seceding [View all]

[BrentWil]

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Source: Politico

The strategic advantage of making an argument for the secession of an American state to an audience in central Moscow is hard to gauge; after all, its voters in the States who would decide this matter. But the value to Russian interests seems more obvious, at least in the estimation of the leader of a separate and competing California secession movement, who actually lives in the state.

YesCalifornia isnt a Californian movement, said Jed Wheeler, the general secretary of the California National Party. YesCalifornia is a movement whose optics are all designed for a Russian audience to reinforce [Vladimir] Putin, by talking abouthow terrible America is, and reinforcing [the idea that] Putin is this great guy who is admired all over the world.

While the conference was going on, of course, the Kremlin-led hacking campaign against the Democratic National Committee was having its effect on the American presidential election, a provocation that has unwound relations between Moscow and Washington (with the exception of the president-elect) to their lowest levels since the pre-Gorbachev days. Since the election, while Washington (again with the exception of the president-elect) debates what the response should be for Russias meddling in the American political process, Marinelli and his handful of supporters are flaunting their ties with Russia, or at least the ones they hope to build. To that end, in mid-December, Marinelli held a news conference, helpfully covered by the state-run RT television station, declaring the opening of a California Embassy in Moscow.

It would be easy to dismiss all this as nonsense driven by publicity-hungry amateurs, but people who know the Russian political playbook say winking at these fringe movementsand even giving them a boostis a part of a very real strategy. Not only is this a way of puffing Russias domestic claims at turmoil in the U.S., but it fits firmly within the Kremlins modus operandi of cultivating fringe groups in the Westincluding, most especially, those who would fracture the United States in a reprise of the Soviet Unions demise, over a quarter-century later.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/01/why-russia-loves-the-idea-of-california-seceding-214632

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Seems like a means to destroy the United States.