'Russian Trolls' Promoted California Independence

It figures:

The California independence movement has been spearheaded by a group called Yes California. One of the group's co-founders, Louis Marinelli, opened a self-styled California embassy in Moscow, and later moved to Siberia.

Marinelli attended a conference of Western secession movements in 2016, along with representatives from similar groups from Texas, Puerto Rico and Northern Ireland. The conference was organised by the Anti-Globalisation Movement, a group that has received money from the Russian government, according to Casey Michel, a reporter for the left-wing news site ThinkProgress.

"It had received funding from the Kremlin to organise this conference to pay for the travel and lodging of American and European secession movements," Michel says.

Marinelli denies any links to the Kremlin or receiving any money from the Russian government. He tells Trending he now plans to return to the United States and rejoin the independence movement which he co-founded.