The leader of a California movement to secede from the United States of America, or “CalExit,” does not want to live under the American flag — and is now settling in Russia.

In a statement issued this week, Louis Marinelli announced that he is moving to his wife’s native Russia permanently, or at least until California secedes, calling himself the self-appointed “representative of the Republic of California to Russia”.

Marinelli posted a long message on yescalifornia.org about his decision to seek permanent residence in Russia, and to abandon the effort he started in 2014 to see California secede from the union. Marinelli states that he led the group in the absence of a native Californian to lead it, adding, “From the beginning, I have pointed out the trouble I bring to the table with my political background and my history in Russia, a country I have grown to love.”

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. Consequently, if the people of Russia would be so kind as to welcome me here on a permanent basis, I intend to make Russia my new home. Accordingly, as the author and architect of the Calexit ballot initiative petition which is currently circulating in California, it is only proper, given my intention to seek permanent residence in Russia and not return to California in the foreseeable future, to withdraw that petition from circulation, and to allow a new petition, free from ties to me and drafted by others, to be resubmitted at future date of their choosing.

In Marinelli’s lengthy address, he attempts to explain some of his disdain for the U.S., and the motivation for his “CalExit” campaign as he writes that he brought his foreign wife to America, but says there were issues with the process of her immigration status. He says his allegiance to the United States shifted to allegiance to California.

In a prior interview with Breitbart California, Marinelli had indicated that his wife is a citizen of Russia and her family still resides there.

He continued, in his address:

And so, thirty-six months ago, I started the Calexit campaign in order to establish a country where my wife would not need to live in the shadows and where my family would feel welcome. And I wanted a country to be proud of again… and California, unlike the United States, is a great source of pride for me. But three weeks ago, my wife finally received her green card and now my personal struggle against the United States government has ended.

He called himself a Californian “first and foremost, and that my claim to being an American is the same claim that could be made by the other inhabitants of North and South America because we are all Americans.”

Marinelli boasted that Yes California has compiled a mailing list of 110,489, with 97,463 of those as registered supporters and 8,510 designated volunteers, but just 1,201 actual financial contributors.

The CalExit leader concluded by stating that he would return to California once the state secedes from the union. “Until then I will continue to serve as the representative of the Republic of California to Russia,” he wrote.

Yes California filed papers last November to begin collecting signatures in an effort to put a California secession measure on the 2018 ballot. The group needed to collect 585,407 valid signatures to qualify.

Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana