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Rallies opposing the Indigenous Voice to parliament planned around Australia this weekend are being organised by a pro-Kremlin activist and anti-vaccination campaigner living in the Russian consulate in Sydney.<\/p>\n
The official No campaign has distanced itself from the latest iteration of the \u201cworld freedom rallies\u201d, which have long been organised by Simeon Boikov, who is also known online as \u201cthe Aussie Cossack\u201d.<\/p>\n
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NSW Liberal Democrat MP John Ruddick says Putin sympathiser Simeon Boikov (pictured) has been important in organising a No rally in Sydney this weekend.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Wolter Peeters<\/cite><\/p>\n While posters for the rallies were originally framed around opposing Australian aid to Ukraine and an array of conspiracy theories, they have now been rebranded as anti-Voice events and are expected to draw crowds in the thousands.<\/p>\n A spokesman for the major No outfit, Fair Australia, said the events scheduled for Saturday were \u201cnot supported, endorsed or funded by us in any way\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe expect there will be many grassroots events and organisations springing up in communities across the country in opposition to the divisive Voice and that is understandable,\u201d the spokesman said in a written statement.<\/p>\n The original poster for Saturday\u2019s rally.<\/span><\/p>\n The rallies \u2013 scheduled in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Canberra as well as regional centres such as Casino in NSW and Yeppoon in Queensland \u2013 could further escalate tensions over the referendum after footage emerged on Tuesday of protestors calling Liberal senator Alex Antic a \u201cracist dog\u201d as he entered a No event in Adelaide.<\/p>\n Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called for civility while Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said the vision was disturbing.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course some of the tone of the debate has been unfortunate, that\u2019s the truth,\u201d Albanese said. \u201cWhat I would say to people is: be respectful. I respect every Australian regardless of whether they\u2019re going to vote Yes or whether they\u2019re going to No.\u201d<\/p>\n NSW Liberal Democrat MP John Ruddick, who will speak at the Sydney No rally, said Boikov had played an important role in organising logistics for the event.<\/p>\n The updated poster for Saturday\u2019s rally.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re very lucky to have him,\u201d Ruddick said.<\/p>\n But Ruddick said he was \u201chorrified\u201d that he had initially been promoted as speaking at a rally listing the Voice as just one of 16 issues of concern including the \u201cindoctrination of children\u201d, AUKUS, abortion, and the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Other topics listed allude to popular conspiracy theories over 5G technology and the World Economic Forum.<\/p>\n Ruddick said it was \u201cabsolutely muddying the waters\u201d on the referendum.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a single issue referendum; we don\u2019t want it merging with all the other stuff,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will not be discussing the Ukraine war, COVID, digital currency \u2013 none of that will be on the agenda, none of that will be spoken about from the platform.\u201d<\/p>\n But Boikov, an outspoken advocate of Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, said he expected the event to highlight topics other than the referendum.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t want people to forget about all the other issues,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re saying no to the Voice, but the Voice isn\u2019t something that cancels out all the other grievances that we have with the government.\u201d<\/p>\n During the pandemic, Boikov expanded his following through the sovereign citizen and anti-vax movements. He now regularly invites Indigenous sovereign groups to perform Welcome to Country ceremonies at his pro-Russia rallies, claiming that all Indigenous Australians support the invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n Indigenous groups have held recent events at the Sydney Russian consulate, where Boikov has been holed up since December to avoid jail time for assaulting a 76-year-old man at a rally in support of Ukraine at Sydney Town Hall.<\/p>\n Last month, Boikov took a poll on his Telegram channel inviting followers to vote on which issue the freedom rallies should focus on next, suggesting everything from \u201cNO to the Voice\u201d to \u201cNO to NATO\u201d.<\/p>\n The Svoboda Alliance \u2013 Russians in Australia who oppose Putin\u2019s invasion of Ukraine \u2013 said pro-Kremlin influencers were \u201cusing First Nations people to promote their messages\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cLooks like the Kremlin believes that voting No will undermine the Labor Party and the prime minister,\u201d Alliance spokesman Ilya Fomin said.<\/p>\n Eddie Synot, a Wemba Wemba lawyer and researcher, said No campaigners\u2019 use of conspiracy theories was causing damage to First Nations people. \u201cOnce again, our communities, the most disadvantaged in this country, are ignored and used by others for their own purposes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n A recent analysis of the debate on X (formerly Twitter) by Queensland University of Technology researcher Timothy Graham suggests conspiracy theorists are increasingly infiltrating the No campaign online.<\/p>\n While neither side appeared to be deploying armies of bots, Graham said the No camp had many more \u201csuspicious accounts\u201d and was dominated by misinformation and conspiracy theories.<\/p>\n The Voice debate ticks all the boxes for a foreign adversary looking to sow division in Australia, he said. \u201cIt\u2019s about race; it\u2019s polarised. They look for any fissure, any crack, to make it worse.\u201d<\/p>\n When the Black Lives Matter movement took off in the US, researchers discovered Russia had waged a covert and sophisticated campaign to inflame division.<\/p>\n Isabella Currie, an expert in Russian information warfare, said she hadn\u2019t found conclusive evidence Russia was running a formal campaign in the Voice debate.<\/p>\n But she said Russia had previously tried to \u201cexploit genuine anti-imperialist and anti-Western sentiments\u201d, including in the 2016 US presidential election.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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