Count former president of Russia Dmitry Medvedev amongst those keenly watching the unfolding border standoff between the State of Texas and the Biden administration.
The staunch Putin ally said he believes the crisis could lead to Texas’ departure from the United States.
Medvedev, who has not been shy about expressing his opinions on social media, took to X on Friday to castigate the Biden administration for its alleged mishandling of the border, arguing that its policies make the idea of a return to the Republic of Texas less far-fetched.
“Establishing a People’s Republic of Texas is getting more and more real; something I wrote about at the end of 2022 in a jocular forecast,” Medvedev wrote.
The former Russian president said this was being brought about by Gov. Greg Abbott’s refusal to allow federal officials to remove the razor wire it installed on sections of the border:
“The American Administration shows its total inability to cope with the migration crisis which has broken out in one of the largest U.S. states. Its governor stopped giving even the slightest damn as to what the White House and its senile old man Biden think, and started to mend barbed wire fences. Indeed, anything will do when defending against the flow of migrants who uncontrollably cross the southern border.”
For its part, the Biden administration has claimed in court that allowing Texas to implement its own border policy “would leave the United States at the mercy of states that could seek to force the federal government to conform the implementation of federal immigration law to varying state-law regimes.”
Medvedev went on to connect Biden’s challenging of Texas’ border control measures with his administration’s foreign policy, including its support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.
“So eagerly supporting the Kiev neonazis, and seemingly, blind to everything else, official Washington proved totally impotent in domestic policy matters. With their inaction, these very authorities can drive the people of Texas up the wall — the very people who are even now mulling over separation.”
That frustration has been on display lately by longtime advocates for Texas independence, like the president of the Texas Nationalist Movement, Daniel Miller, who once made the case for Texas independence to The Dallas Express.
On Monday, Miller posted on social media, “Our priorities are clear: Texas safety and sovereignty. If federal decisions don’t align, TEXIT is the only path forward.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also implied in a media interview last Friday that Texas became a part of the United States with the understanding that the Union would defend the state.
“There’s no way that Texas would have joined the Union if that meant we couldn’t protect ourselves,” Paxton said.
Whether a legal pathway exists for states to secede from the United States has been controversial, fraught with echoes of the Civil War between the Union and the Confederacy in the 19th century.
According to Jeffrey Kahn, a law professor at Southern Methodist University, there is no right to secede, reported the Austin American-Statesman. However, Sanford Levinson, a University of Texas School of Law professor, said opinions differ on the question.
“You could get some lawyers to say, ‘Oh no, states simply can’t secede under any circumstances,'” Levinson said, per the Austin American-Statesman. “You could get some lawyers to say, ‘Well, you know actually, the best understanding of the Constitution is that a state could legitimately secede under some circumstances.'”
Levinson noted that the U.S. Constitution has nothing to say specifically on secession.