A USSR-born Brooklyn pol born recently dissed his constituents, declaring he and fellow comrades who fled to the United States are more cultured than homegrown Americans.
State Assemblyman Michael Novakhov, a one-time Sen. Bernie Sanders-loving Dem who flipped GOP to run for office in his mostly red southern Brooklyn district, made the claim in a Feb. 18 Facebook rant about vandals ripping down lights his office used taxpayer money to install along a walking bridge connecting Sheepshead Bay to Manhattan Beach.
“We, the descendants of the USSR, consider ourselves a little more cultured than the residents of the country we came to,” he wrote, according to a Facebook translation from Russian to English on the assemblyman’s page.
“We go to theaters and classical music concerts. We take care of the humanitarian education of our children, but at the same time, we remove the traffic lights from the bridge,” added Novakhov.
“We have to accept the fact that our area lacks household culture, although each individual considers himself an intelligent and cultured person.”
Novakhov insisted Friday the Facebook translation is wrong and that he “absolutely” doesn’t feel USSR-born immigrants are more cultured than other Americans.
But Joey Cohen-Saben, a moderate Democrat running to unseat Novakhov in the 45th Assembly District that also includes portions of Gravesend and Brighton Beach, said he’s not buying it and believes the remarks show Novakhov doesn’t have the pulse of the neighborhoods he reps.
“When common sense left the building, Novakhov held the door,” said Cohen-Saben, who narrowly lost the 2024 race to Novakhov by a percentage point.
“And just when you think it can’t get worse, he demeans and degrades his own constituents as inferior and uncultured if they’re not from the former USSR. It’s a disgrace to the office he holds.”
Novakhov called Cohen-Saben “desperate,” claiming his opponent is trying to “spread lies” to win over voters.
Novakhov was a loyal Democrat and frequent lefty campaign donor — whose contributions include $170 in 2016 to socialist Sen. Sanders of Vermont — before crossing party lines and successfully running to unseat then-Democratic incumbent Steven Cymbrowitz in 2022.
Novakhov has a history of palling around with prominent NYC socialists like Brooklyn Councilman Chi Ossé and has often liked and reposted social media remarks from ex-comptroller Brad Lander, another socialist, and Manhattan’s soft-on-crime District Attorney Alvin Bragg, The Post reported in 2023.
And Novakhov’s own personal Instagram page features him prominently wearing a tongue-in-cheek Communist “party” sweater featuring images of Karl Marx, Mao Zedong, Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin holding balloons.
