2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumSEP 2016 Moscow welcomes the (would-be) sovereign nations of California and Texas
The speaker was calling for Californias independence from the United States.
Alexei Gavrilko nodded approvingly. A burly, bearded, camouflage-wearing separatist from eastern Ukraine, he said he had come to the posh Moscow hotel just outside the Kremlin to communicate with colleagues representing separatist and secessionist groups from the United States, Europe, the Middle East and the former Soviet Union.
During a conference dubbed the Dialogue of Nations, Gavrilko listened carefully to Louis Marinelli, head of the Yes California group that is determined to hold the Golden States independence referendum in 2019.
For the first time in history, we, the people of California, who were conquered and annexed by the American military about 170 years ago, will have a chance to express our voice to either remain a state in the American union, or instead, to pursue a path toward a nationhood, Marinelli said solemnly.
Gavrilko, who is from the unrecognized but de facto independent Donetsk region, and the entire separatist crowd cheered and applauded. They did it again, louder, when Nate Smith, a self-proclaimed foreign minister of the Texas Nationalist Movement, promised that one day, the independent Lone Star state can formally exchange ambassadors with your free and independent countries.
The arrival of Californian, Texan, Puerto Rican, Northern Irish, Catalan, Italian and Lebanese secessionists to mingle with activists from several unrecognized separatist territories in former Soviet republics is becoming a tradition as Moscow turns to belligerent, anti-Western nationalism coupled with a readiness to take up arms against its former Soviet vassals.
Moscow uses these gatherings to promote its political agenda, gain more political leverage in the West and push for the lifting of Western sanctions imposed on Moscow after its 2014 annexation of Crimea and support of the separatists in eastern Ukraine, a former lawmaker with the ruling United Russia party said.
The more the West is disunited, the more beneficial it is to Russia, Sergei Markov said, adding that the secession of California and Texas a prospect that would appear to be something of a long shot would undoubtedly benefit the Kremlin.
http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-russia-separatists-snap-story.html
Madam45for2923
(7,178 posts)Alexander Ionov
Alexander Ionov, head of the Anti-Globalist Movement of Russia, addresses a conference of separatist and secessionist movements from the U.S., Europe, Middle East and former Soviet republics on Sept. 25, 2016, in Moscow
Madam45for2923
(7,178 posts)The more the West is disunited, the more beneficial it is to Russia, Sergei Markov said, adding that the secession of California and Texas a prospect that would appear to be something of a long shot would undoubtedly benefit the Kremlin.
http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-russia-separatists-snap-story.html