The ‘Goblin’ as hero

He also leads a brand-new army, 30 men carrying AK-47s, who are still learning to march in formation. “Commander!” they greeted him Saturday, when they were sworn into service in a Simferopol park. Speaking at the ceremony, the former semi-professional boxer said that while Crimea’s March 16 referendum would make the peninsula a part of Russia, he holds no grudge against Ukraine. He is, he insisted, a peacemaker.

But the people of Simferopol remember Aksyonov by his 1990s name Goblin. Andriy Senchenko, now a member of Ukraine’s Batkivshchyna party, which was at the forefront of the Kiev protests that led last month to the downfall of pro-Russia President Viktor Yanukovych, described Aksyonov as a “brigade leader” in a gang that was often involved in extortion rackets.

The editor of the region’s main pro-Russian newspaper, Crimean Truth, also accused Aksyonov of being in a criminal gang.