Why Russia Wants to See California Secede

Following Donald Trump’s reelection to the presidency in November 2024, the idea of secession has reemerged on the ballot in America’s richest state.

On Jan. 23, California’s Secretary of State, Shirley Weber, announced approval for the commencement of signature gathering to support a measure requiring California to study the viability of becoming an independent nation by 2027. If the petition attains the necessary 500,000 signatures by late July, the measure would also add a question to the November 2028 ballot reading: “Should California leave the United States and become a free and independent country?”

For Vladimir Putin, who never misses an opportunity to intensify polarization and foment chaos within the United States, fringe secessionist movements such as this one have been perfect conduits for conducting information warfare. Since at least 2014, the Kremlin has been materially supporting the growth of many such groups. And this most recent upswing in California indicates that it is continuing to do so today.

The US must be ready to respond, and to remind Putin that the separatist movements burgeoning within his own borders deserve more attention than the ones he seeks to fabricate within ours.

Russia’s historical interference in California can be traced as far back as at least 2016, when one of the founders of the Calexit movement, Louis Marinelli, went to Russia to attend a Kremlin-supported “Dialogue of Nations” conference which brought together secessionist leaders from around the world. That same year, he created an “embassy” of California in Moscow and even hung a banner in the Bay Area reading: “CA and Russia will always be friends.” Concurrently, social media accounts with ties to Russia pushed messages that promoted independent California.

Other Topics of Interest

Germans go to Vote Under Shadow of Far-Right Surge, Trump

Today is an important moment of choice for Germany and Europe.

In 2022, the Justice Department indicted a Russian national for trying to sow discord in American politics. Aleksander Ionov, who worked with the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), was exercising “direction and control” over a California-based political group “whose primary goal was to promote California’s secession from the United States.”

California is not the only arena in which Russia has engaged in propaganda related to secessionist movements. In Texas, for example, when some citizens raised calls for independence in the name of “Texit,” Russian lawmaker Sergey Mironov posted on X offering to “help with the independence referendum,” and to “recognize the People’s Republic of Texas. Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president and deputy chair of the Security Council, warned of civil war in the US based on Californian and Texan desires to secede. Russian TV host Sergey Mardan rejoiced at the idea of “civil war 2.0” and stated “if your enemy is facing a problem, you need to help turn it into a catastrophe.”

Underpinning all of this are continued efforts by Russian media to inflate the importance of these movements, and to tap into popular rhetoric around independence and self-determination to support them.

It doesn’t stop at America’s border, either. Russia has supported Catalan and Scottish independence movements, currently underwrites Republika Srpska, which seeks to secede from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and of course, has used the idea of self-determination and secession of individual regions to justify invading Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.

As the Kremlin continues to weaponize secessionist movements in the West, Washington should push back, exposing Russia’s information operations as those being employed in California and Texas. It should also remind Putin of the far more serious independence movements emerging within his own country. Moscow’s repressive policies against ethnic minorities have led to serious calls for freedom and fair representation in the North Caucasus Federal District, Karelia, Tatarstan, and more. He’d do well to give them half as much attention as he does to flimsy, overexaggerated ones abroad.