His accent and explosive temper are a homage to Hollywood actor Akim Tamiroff,[7][5] especially his role in The Great McGinty.

Boris is a spy from the fictional nation of Pottsylvania, and takes orders from the strongman known as Fearless Leader (and occasionally the rarely seen Mr. Big).

Boris's missions range from trying to steal a secret rocket fuel formula to eliminating all television from the United States as part of Pottsylvania's various attempts to seize power.

Boris, who is thoroughly dedicated to (and takes delight in) all manners of nefarious deeds, also sometimes engages in his own schemes, such as starting his own organized crime gang and hiring himself out as a professional executioner, and frequently conspires schemes simply to get rich (such as by posing as a Hollywood director to bilk Bullwinkle out of his life savings in "The Last Angry Moose" or usurping Santa Claus by taking advantage of a freak polar drift in "Topsy Turvy World").

Separately from the television series, a commercial for the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show featuring Boris established that he was an active member of Local 12 of the Villains, Thieves, and Scoundrels Union.

[5] According to the Rialto Theater's "Moosebill" for "Downhill: The Musical" (a special table of contents insert created for the DVD box set Rocky and Bullwinkle & Friends, The Third Season), Boris was educated in the Pottsylvania public schools before taking a scoundrelship to U.S.C.

He has a strong stomach and because of it was one of only three survivors of the ruling clique of Pottsylvania, the other two being his superiors Fearless Leader and Mister Big.

She does indeed do this in one episode, saying those very words to Boris as the car they were in dropped over a cliff to the ground in the 8-segment story arc "The Treasure of Monte Zoom".