Vladimir Putin: California Dreamin’
It’s not just Donald Trump who’s apparently cozying up with Vladimir Putin these days — it’s now the entire state of California. In what has to be one of the strangest codas of an election cycle ever, members of the #Calexit lobby pressing for California’s exit from the union recently made their way to Moscow, where they announced the opening of a new Californian “embassy.”
During the U.S. presidential campaign, there were growing reports of Brexit-style secessions of major U.S. states — including Texas (“Texit”) and California (“Calexit”). At the time, nobody really gave these American Brexits much credence, viewing them as nothing more than fringe political movements. But then came the Trump election victory.
Where the secessionist momentum is the greatest is California, where the state overwhelmingly rejected a Trump presidency by more than 4.3 million electoral votes, and where both the Silicon Valley business establishment and the Hollywood entertainment establishment are deeply leery of Trump’s future ambitions. And now members of the #Calexit lobby are pushing for a state-wide referendum on secession in 2018.
In an attempt to boost foreign recognition of the #Calexit movement, the leaders plan to leverage the group’s de facto embassy in Russia. However, they made clear that they planned to ask for no military assistance from Moscow (at least for now). One #Calexit supporter even made it onto Fox News, where the reaction was a mix of incredulity and scorn.
It’s possible to view this move by the #Calexit lobby to embrace Russia in one of two different ways — as a PR stunt by a bunch of naive kids (the people attending the event in Moscow seemed to be mostly young, earnest millennials) or as yet another attempt by Vladimir Putin’s Russia to destabilize American democracy and sow even more chaos in what has already been a very strange election cycle.
If you watched the video coverage of the event from RT, the Kremlin-backed news service, it’s obvious that they took obvious delight in this scene. Watch to the very end and you’ll see images of Che Guevera, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez and… Bashar Assad. That’s right — the current generation of Marxist leftists can now throw in their lot with the Moscow-backed Syrian leader:
Allowing the Calexit group to hold a press conference in Moscow is similar to the Kremlin’s willingness to overlook the shortcomings of a number of fringe politicians, far-right populist groups, anti-globalization initiatives and nationalist movements that may not be able to get a voice in their home country, but are given a chance in Russia.
From a theoretical point of view, what’s the difference between tiny Abkhazia, South Ossetia or Transnistria forming breakaway republics and courting Moscow’s attention, and, say, California forming a breakaway republic and looking for international recognition?
“But those states are in the post-Soviet sphere of influence!” seems to be the obvious reply for anyone who might even be able to find places like Abkhazia on the map (hint: it’s next door to Sochi, which hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics).
But here’s where things get interesting — California may not be as separate from the Russian sphere of influence as you might think. Back in the early 1800s, there were actually plans for Russian settlements in California. Fort Ross, for example, is a California outpost of Russian culture dating back to 1812.
And there are a surprising number of landmarks and geographical locations that have Russian names within the state (if you’ve ever had a delightful glass of Russian River Valley pinot noir or chardonnay, you can at least indirectly thank imperial Russia).
[And, by the way, have you ever noticed that the official mascot of the state of California — the bear — is also the unofficial mascot of Russia?]
A recent Russian cultural event in California sponsored by the Moscow-based media outlet Russia Direct attracted the attention of politicians, journalists, academics and former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul (who’s now holed up at Stanford after becoming persona non grata in Russia these days). A matching report unveiled at the event was simply called “California: U.S.-Russia Shared Frontiers” and highlighted all the ways that Russians and Californians have a long and rich history extending back nearly 200 years.
Heading into 2017, #Calexit is one of those stories that could start to take on a life of its own. Just as Moscow eventually ended up harboring Edward Snowden, touching off a storm of criticism from the U.S. and becoming part of the global debate over state security surveillance, is it possible that Moscow may end up creating a similar story of media criticism by harboring the “Never Trumpers” and the disaffected elements in states like California that badly want to secede during a Trump presidency? Forget going to Canada to avoid Trump — head to Moscow instead!
Moscow, of course, would have to provide any support to the #Calexit lobby on the down low, as part of their black ops funding (presumably, the same funding used for the “little green men” in Crimea). But imagine the laughs and chortles that you might hear in the halls of the Kremlin if a “color revolution” started in cities like San Francisco and Berkeley!
This has already been the year when Trump has been accused of being a “Manchurian Candidate” (i.e. “Siberian Candidate”) and one in which the U.S. security services say they have firm proof that the Russian intelligence services were behind the break-in to the DNC email server. Just imagine the political outcry if Vladimir Putin ever starts California Dreamin’ and supports any attempts to foment a revolution in the very heart of California.
