Yes California, a campaign that has generated headlines for months for trying to find a way to force California to secede from the United States, is technically based in San Diego, but the man who leads it lives in Russia.

Now he says he’s staying there for good and ending his association with the movement.

Call it a Calexit from Calexit.

Yes California’s California Independence Campaign, which got its start well before the contentious 2016 presidential election made it more of a household name, has received lots of attention lately for two reasons.

First, a surprising number of people (a third of Californians, according to one poll) say that they find secession a more intriguing idea since Donald Trump became president after the state voted 61.5 percent for Hillary Clinton. Second, the U.K. voted in 2016 to leave the European Union , and that campaign, called “Brexit,” helped “Calexit” become a catchier and more identfiable idea.

The hashtag #Calexit has since become a popular one on social media. There are other California secession groups, including the California National Party, but Yes California has already begun to collect signatures at the start of 2017 to get a “Calexit” initiative on a future ballot for Californians to vote on.

The campaign — which already faced an extremely difficult road to California secession — got some bad publicity in December to go along with its incredulous publicity when it was discovered that its leader, Louis Martinelli, actually lives in Russia. Now, Martinelli says he intends to make Russia his new home permanently.

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In a farewell statement on the Yes California website, he discussed the difficulty his wife, a Russian national, has had with the U.S. immigration process and his frustration with what he describes as media efforts to undermine the campaign as well as “anti-Russian hysteria.”

“As I have stated in the past, I do not wish to live under the American flag. I do not wish to live under the American political system or within the American economic system. Regardless, I had long planned to eventually return to occupied California and struggle for her independence from the United States so we could build the kind of country that reflects our progressive values. However, while my frustration, disappointment and disillusionment with the United States remains, these feelings now point me in a different direction. I have found in Russia a new happiness, a life without the albatross of frustration and resentment towards ones’ homeland, and a future detached from the partisan divisions and animosity that has thus far engulfed my entire adult life.”

He also says he’s pulling his California independence initiative from circulation so a new one “free from ties to me and drafted by others” can be created.

It should also be noted that the campaign’s vice-president, Marcus Ruiz Evans, announced he was leaving Yes California on Monday.

The announcement from Marinelli thrust the campaign back into the spotlight on social media on Monday.

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https://twitter.com/Amy_Siskind/status/854080576294457344

https://twitter.com/ericasatifka/status/854078704032432128

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Will the “Calexit” movement be better off without its controversial leader? Or do you still think it doesn’t stand a chance? Tell us your latest thoughts on #Calexit with a tweet to @sdutideas.

Email: abby.hamblin@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @abbyhamblin