Dear Mr Negruk

 

Your Freedom of Information (FOI) Enquiry

 

I refer to your email received by the Department of Foreign Affairs and
Trade (DFAT) on 26 April 2023 and made in the following terms:

 

                "... I hereby request information regarding the current
legal status of Simeon Boikov aka The Aussie Cossack.. It is my
understanding he is currently in residence as an Australian citizen at the
Consular    office's of the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in
Woollara,Sydney. He has an active arrest      warrant issued by the NSW
courts and  publicly proclaiming he has been granted diplomatic asylum. If
this were true, there would have been a an official request in writing and
high level communications between the Consul General and Australian
governmental and legal authorities to address such a rare             
diplomatic case. There are many actions that do not even remotely follow
known and universally accepted guidelines for such matters according to
the Vienna Conventions and       UNHCR regarding internationaly accepted
protocols for this highly unusal and unprecedented event. What is the
official responce              from the Australian Government?"

 

Your request is not valid

 

Having reviewed your request, we do not consider that it currently meets
the requirements of a valid FOI request under the FOI Act. This is because
the right of access under the FOI Act provides for access to documents,
not information. Your request does not clearly identify the documents you
are seeking. Rather than requesting access to documents held by DFAT, you
have requested information. As such, the purpose of this email is to
assist you in making your request valid.

 

How to make a valid FOI request

 

To be considered valid, your request must provide such information
concerning the documents you are requesting, as is reasonably necessary to
enable a reasonable officer of DFAT to identify the documents requested.

 

In drafting the scope of your request you may wish to consider specifying
the type of documents you are seeking, for example:

 

"correspondence between DFAT and the Consulate General of the Russian
Federation in Woollara, Sydney regarding Mr Simeon Boikov."

 

If you would like to proceed with a valid FOI request you can reply by
return email to [1][DFAT request email].

 

Additional information

 

As your request for information asks "what is the official responce from
the Australian Government?", you may wish to consider making a media
enquiry rather than lodging a FOI request. Media enquiries can be sent by
email to [2][email address].

 

Should you require any further information, please do not hesitate to
contact us by return email at [3][DFAT request email].

 

Kind regards

 

DFAT FOI Team

_______________________________
Freedom of Information Section

Public Interest Law Branch | Regulatory and Legal Policy Division

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

[4]dfat.gov.au | [5]Twitter | [6]Facebook | [7]Instagram  | [8]LinkedIn

 

© Kim Hill, Among Women (2011)

[9]We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout
Australia, and their continuing connection to land, waters and community.
We pay our respects to all First Nations peoples, their cultures and to
their Elders, past, present and emerging.

 

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