Time running out for Vladimir Putin’s man in Australia, Simeon Boikov … if Putin knew who he was

Simeon Boikov has been holed up in the Russian Consulate in Double Bay since December. Picture: Supplied

Simeon Boikov, the self-proclaimed Aussie Cossack likes to refer to himself as a political prisoner. A defector in need of political asylum. A freedom lovin’ internet soldier just doing his job. Assange with an eating disorder.

Boikov has been holed up in the Russian Consulate in Double Bay since December.

One has to wonder how long this farce can continue.

Boikov was turfed from YouTube late last month and was obliged to screen his message to another lesser video platform, Rumble, earlier this week. For the consumption of his 2700 followers there he urged Evgeniy Prigozhin, the leader of the mercenary Wagner Group, to capture Australians and New Zealanders who had volunteered to fight with the Ukrainians.

Boikov ran a list of names of Australians and New Zealanders who he believed were fighting in Ukraine. If Prigozhin would be so kind, could he capture them at gunpoint and arrange a swift prison swap?

Prigozhin is one of the world’s most wanted men. The FBI issued a warrant for his arrest in February 2018 alleging Prigozhin was “the primary funder of the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency (IRA). He allegedly oversaw and approved [its] political and electoral interference operations in the United States which included the purchase of American computer server space, the creation of hundreds of fictitious online personas, and the use of stolen identities of persons from the United States. These actions were allegedly taken to reach significant numbers of Americans for the purposes of interfering with the United States political system, including the 2016 Presidential Election.”

The arms trafficker who has committed mass murder on two continents, was filmed last year executing a member of the Wagner Group who had defected to the Ukrainians before being captured. The man was killed with repeated blows of a sledgehammer to his head.

Meanwhile in Sydney, Boikov was convicted in absentia with assault occasioning bodily harm of a 72-year-old man. He fled to the Russian Consulate immediately after assaulting the septuagenarian knowing that he had breached his parole and would be returned post haste to HM Silverwater.

Boikov had previously been jailed for breaching suppression orders in relation to the identity of a man charged with sex offences.

Australia’s Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, has declined to comment on Boikov’s latest ‘look at me’ outrage.

Is Boikov a pro-Putin fantasist or a man with genuine links to Russian intelligence networks? The answer probably is that he’s a fair bit of the former and a little bit of the latter but only at a pinch.

As the cabin fever kicks in at Boikov’s apartment within the consulate building – not much bigger than a prison cell by the way, his bleating on social media has become more desperate and unhinged, amid reports the Russian consulate has no idea what to do with him.

At the same time when Russia announced sanctions against 121 Australians in June last year, including yours truly, the explanatory note from the Russian Foreign Ministry (FSB) named Boikov specifically with his florid title as ataman of the Australian branch of TransBaikal Cossacks, claiming he had been persecuted by horrible Australians.

Which is odd because in 2017, the Council of Atamans of the TransBaikal Cossacks in Chita, western Russia, sent Boikov to the naughty step, removing him as an ataman, apparently unhappy with his behaviour.

Two months earlier, the Russian Australian Representatives Council (RARC) took Boikov off their Christmas card list stating, “his numerous public statements on behalf of the organisation contradict the purposes and aims of RARC and have a negative impact on the reputation of RARC and its members.”

Ultimately, Putin’s man in Australia, if Putin knew who he was, may just be a very naughty boy who hangs around with anti-vaxxers and freedom movement desperados to garner clout he may have once had but doesn’t anymore.

Pro Russian supporters walk past the Polish Consulate in Sydney. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

Confirmation that Putin doesn’t know who Boikov is came through earlier this week when a genuine defector, Gleb Karakulov, an engineer with Russia’s Federal Protective Service (FSO), who spent years in Putin’s service at close quarters with the Russian President for more than 12 years.

Karakulov described his former boss as a war criminal and a gibbering paranoid who is terrified of Covid and doesn’t own or use a mobile phone. He moves from office to office with the furnishings, decor and the paintings on the walls replicated.

At last, Putin’s long table meetings with each table longer than the last, has been explained. According to Karakulov who fled Russia last year, Putin also assiduously avoids using the internet.

He’s not a YouTuber. Thus, Boikov’s braggadocio has largely faded into the ether somewhere above the Kremlin unwatched and unloved by the one man he seeks to impress.

Karakulov is something of a hero who flew from Kazakhstan to Turkey and safety with his small family in October last year. He and his family fled with just three suitcases. There are warrants for his arrest in Russia and he will almost certainly be a target of retribution, possibly of the Novichok poisoning kind. He had watched Putin and his cronies shuffle about with obscene displays of personal wealth. When Russia invaded Ukraine, he knew he had to get out.

Boikov, too, is wanted by police. The New South Wales Police Force. Albeit for the less courageous offence of pushing an old man down a couple of steps in Sydney’s CBD.

The Ukrainian embassy has called for Russia’s consular office to be closed but that would be a step too far. Nevertheless, the Australian government needs to quietly place some diplomatic pressure on the Russians to have this man emerge into the hands of police with little or no loss of face.

There can be no prison swaps or deals for Simeon Boikov. Out you come, son.

It’s time to face the consequences.