Long Island officials call for Russian compound to be shuttered
Russians, pack your bags!
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman and Rep. Lee Zeldin called on President Biden Saturday to boot Russia from the Killenworth compound in Glen Cove that it has owned for seven decades.
“President Biden, expel these Russians from Nassau County,” said Blakeman whose grandparents emigrated from Odesa in Ukraine. “We don’t need them here, and let’s get this property back on the tax rolls, so the people of Nassau County and Glen Cove don’t have to finance thugs and dictators and people who invade innocent countries.”
He said the county was losing $50,000 a year in tax revenue.
Blakeman, a Republican, made the announcement standing outside the gate of the 36-acre estate which the Soviet Union bought in the late 1940s as a residence for its UN ambassador and which later served as a retreat for its diplomats. But it has long been thought to also be a center for espionage.
“One of the things that is most disconcerting is the fact that we have no idea what they’re doing behind these walls; what kind of nefarious activities they could be engaged in,” Blakeman said.
Zeldin, a Republican and member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the current sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine are not effective and called for the country’s removal from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication — or SWIFT — as well.
“I believe that Russia is now a state sponsor of terror with their actions,” he said. “I believe that Russia should be cut off with secondary sanctions on their banking system.”
Roughly 40 Ukrainian Americans, many of whom were children holding the country’s blue and yellow flag, flanked the officials.
Get the latest updates in the Russia-Ukraine conflict with The Post’s live coverage.
The Russian presence has riled Long Island for years.
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev stayed at the 26,459-square-foot Killenworth mansion during a 1960 visit to the UN, prompting locals to protest with signs calling him a “Pig Fat Murderer” and “Chubby Russian Hangman.”
The US booted Russia from another Long Island compound in 2016, Norwich House in Upper Brookville. The Soviet Union bought the 36-room mansion in 1952, also as a purported weekend retreat for its diplomats, but it was actually intended as a spy base, according to sources.
President Obama ordered it shuttered as retaliation for Russia interfering in the 2016 election.
Evicting Russia from Killenworth could be challenging because it is considered a UN Mission, according to a report in Newsday.
“There’s a lot of precedent for expelling diplomats to the United Nations. It’s done with other countries,” Zeldin said. “The President absolutely would have the power to expel any diplomat that we want to and need to from the United States of America.”
A UN rep said, “this is really an issue between the Russian Mission to the UN and the US authorities.”
Representatives from the Russian Mission and the White House did not immediately return requests for comment.
