Many Russian immigrants to the "red borough" of Staten Island are flocking to the Republican Party, saying that the national Democrats' "socialistic" policies remind them too much of the top-down oligarchy they fled in their native land.
With many of the borough's Russian arrivees already owning businesses and active in civic organizations, their muscle could help the Island GOP solidify electoral gains made this year, when the party took back congressional and Assembly seats.
Businessman Arkadiy Fridman said that the newly formed Citizens Magazine Business Club, a confederation of more than 50 Russian-owned businesses here and in Brooklyn, has aligned itself with the Molinari Republican Club (MRC) in an effort to increase the Russian community's political and economic clout.
"We decided we had to support this club," said Fridman, a former Soviet Army officer who came to the United States in 1992. "They are very close to our political and business vision."
Fridman said that the Democrats "are going in an absolutely different direction," focusing on "income redistribution" and rich-versus-poor "class war."
The Big Brother approach reminds Fridman too much of what he left behind in the former Soviet Union.
"It's the same rule like it was there," said Fridman, who estimates there are around 55,000 Russian immigrants here.
Michael Petrov of the Digital Edge data management firm in Bloomfield, said that he objects to the "micro-managing of the economy" he's seen from city as well as federal officials.
"Government is affecting small business more and more," said Petrov, who came to the United States in 1994. "It's the same as what's happening in Russia."
Now, who better to know the direction the US has been taken by the Democrats then Russian Immigrants and a former Soviet Army Officer.
There has been only a small fragment of our country that have been warning the American people for decades about the direction the Dems want this nation to go in.
But the likes of Obama, Pelosi and Reid woke most people up the last 2 years.
Lets hope they never forget, again.
