FISHY FARAGE: My Latest in Byline Times Revisits Farage’s role in ‘Calexit’ — another Russian-funded operation
In today’s Byline Times, I remind readers about that time Reform UK leader Nigel Farage was part of an operation to divide California, which collapsed after it was revealed to be funded by Russia
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Russia, Russia, Russia is real, as my eight years of steady reporting has evidenced.
In my latest report for Byline Times, I take readers on a trip down memory lane, to that time when Brexit hype men Nigel Farage and Arron Banks raised a million dollars with Russia’s favorite Congressman Dana Rohrabacher to push for California’s vivisection.
You can read my full report at Byline Times, but here is an excerpt:
Another Time Nigel Farage Worked with a Putin Ally to ‘Harm Democratic Governance’ – and Refused to Speak About it
It’s been a weird week for pro-Kremlin assets. Donald Trump fanboyed Putin during a Presidential debate, which he used as an opportunity to lie for 90 minutes while President Joe Biden looked on in horror.
And Julian Assange, who trafficked stolen goods by Russian military intelligence to help throw the 2016 election to Trump, pleaded guilty to espionage.
And Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage — a reliable mouthpiece of the Putin regime — said Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky should negotiate a peace deal with the Russian invaders, just like pro-Russian interloper in the US election, Robert Kennedy Jr.
But what may be long forgotten in Farage’s history of engaging in active measures to harm democratic governance globally is his participation in an attempt to vivisect California in collaboration with Dana Rohrabacher, a former California politician nicknamed “Putin’s favorite Congressman”.
I learned about Farage meddling in California politics when Moscow resident Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov was indicted by the United States in collaboration with at least three Russian agents for engaging in foreign malign influence campaigns targeting the country…
The indictment alleged that Ionov used American political groups as foreign agents of Russia, working on behalf of the FSB. It offered pages of examples of electronic correspondences between Ionov and various groups, instructing them to plant news stories sympathetic to Russia, Putin, and the invasion of Ukraine. It also revealed that Ionov backed multiple American political candidates.
When we first investigated the story, court documents pointed to one of the groups being “Yes California” – an organisation set up in 2015 by Louis Marinelli, a New Yorker living in Russia. It advocated for California breaking away from the rest of the United States.
The campaigns to divide California in two countries and to secede from the Union – known as ‘Calexit’ – was repeatedly covered by Russian state media in 2016 and 2017. Yes California’s Marinelli opened an “embassy” in Moscow in 2016, with the Anti-Globalisation Movement of Russia providing the office space rent-free. A right-wing activist who had campaigned against LGBTQ rights, Marinelli said he left his home in Yekaterinburg, about 1,000 miles outside Moscow, to fight for California’s secession.
The campaign was halted after reports emerged that Russia was funding the effort to weaken America and cause chaos…
Russian interference in Brexit preceded the Calexit operation. So it was not surprising to find the architects of Brexit – Leave.EU’s Arron Banks and Nigel Farage – were recruited in 2017 for the Calexit campaign by Republican Scott Baugh, a former member of the state assembly, and lobbyist Gerry Gunster.
At the time, headlines read “Brexit leader Nigel Farage wants to split Calfornia in half next”.
According to The Times of London, Farage and Banks raised $1 million for a campaign to set up a “Calexit” style referendum in the state for 2018…
As investigative reporter Carole Cadwalladr tweeted to Farage in 2017: “Why were you in California pushing Calexit? Why was this photo deleted?”
The photo she referenced showed a smiling Farage fishing with Rohrabacher.
Funny that both men met with Julian Assange, who just pleaded guilty to espionage.
Funny that.
‘Massive Parallels’
I’m guessing you are seeing the patterns, the same players, and the ties with Putin’s regime. As Cadwalladr also tweeted back in 2018:
Polite reminder. Trump & Brexit are not 2 different things. They are the same thing. Same companies. Same data. Same Facebook. Same Russians. Same Cambridge Analytica. Same Robert Mercer. Same Steve Bannon. Same Breitbart. Same Alexander Nix. Same Donald Trump. Same Nigel Farage.—Carole Cadwalldr, July 13, 2018
As I wrote earlier, shake it off. We have work to do.
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