Thread by @cjcmichel

Flights to Russia and embassies in Moscow. Petition drives and fake social media accounts galore.

My dive into three years of support out of Russia for American separatists - and the blowback that came with: thinkprogress.org/russia-texas-c…

As a quick run-through: U.S. secessionists' ties in Russia date to at least early 2015, when @texasnatmov sent one of its officers to St. Petersburg to hang with the far-right Rodina crowd, and to stump for Texas secession. thinkprogress.org/russia-texas-c…

(A bot network immediately picked up on @texasnatmov's visit to Russia, and pushed out "Free Texas!" messages by the dozen. Even Pravda got in on the game.)

Meanwhile, the Russian "Heart of Texas" Facebook page began pulling in followers, eventually topping out at a quarter-million - and claiming they would pass along follower information to @texasnatmov.

In 2016, @texasnatmov made its second trip to Russia - this time, with some help for their travel. The Texas secessionists said they got a "small grant" from Moscow, but "declined to say how much money the Kremlin gave" to their group.

Another campaign that later admitted to receiving funding from a Kremlin-backed organization to travel to Moscow in 2016 - and that later saw a wealth of coverage: #Calexit folks.

Hop in the wayback machine, and immediately after Trump's victory, #Calexit was suddenly one of the most popular hashtags on Twitter.

But researchers later showed that the #Calexit Twitter surge got a big, fun boost from Russia- and white nationalist-linked bot networks.

And then we have the wonderful, beguiling opening of the "Embassy of the Independent Republic of California" in Moscow in late 2016, helping to speed along Russian-Californian relations.

Complete with this person, in an Obama mask, making preparations. All provided rent-free.

Just as with the team from Texas, the fake Russian social media operations included #Calexit in their roster of topics to target - and even reportedly worked directly with the American who had opened the "California Embassy" in Moscow. thinkprogress.org/russia-texas-c…

Long story short: #Calexit and #Texit are effectively dead(er than they would have been otherwise), thanks in no small part to searching out - and finding - support in Russia.

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Texas Nationalist Movement says in new post that they've had no contact with Mueller's team: texasnationalist.com/news/with-vagu… (TNM also calls Mueller's team "inept.")