Results tagged “russian”

So let’s get this right. If you're a Moscow mogul looking to buy the New Jersey Nets and move them to Brooklyn, you don’t have to do any of the legwork that comes with finding an apartment in the bustling borough?

The Post gets one of their juicy "sources" to dish on Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz's reaction to the idea of a Russian-owned Nyets team. Markowitz, a big Atlantic Yards booster throughout the controversy and delays, is feeling a little burned at this point, according to "one operative": "It's a combination of anger and embarrassment. He signed on to a magnificent Frank Gehry-designed Brooklyn palace in the sky, and now he's got a foreign-owned big hole in the ground." But fuggedaboutit; it's still the best hole in the best borough of New York!

On the heels of Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov's blog confirmation of rumors that he'll help finance the Bruce Ratner's embattled Nets stadium, Forest City Ratner has issued a statement detailing the "strategic partnership for the development of the Atlantic Yards Project." According to the press release, "entities to be formed by Prokhorov's Onexim Group will invest $200 million and make certain contingent funding commitments to acquire 45% of the arena project and 80% of the NBA team." The tentative $200 million deal would also involve Prokhorov taking on some of the team’s debts and reducing Ratner’s 23 percent stake.

Wednesday night a few Russian women were ticketed $250 a piece for swimming past 6 p.m. at Brighton Beach. The Parks security allegedly threatened to jail them and check up on their immigration statuses. While the Parks Dept. told us that "New York State law does not allow you to swim at your own risk," the swimmers (and eyewitnesses) say that the lifeguards never alerted them that the beach was closing, and simply clocked out without getting anyone out of the water.

That NYC cab driver turned billionaire has pleaded guilty to charges that he violated the Endangered Species Act by attempting to import 29 rare dead animals into the US aboard his yacht. You may recall Tamir Sapir as the Georgian man who rose from immigrant hack to Russian oil and real estate tycoon, ultimately buying the city's most expensive townhouse across from the Metropolitan Museum for $40 million in 2006. But Florida Customs officers who peered inside his yacht in 2007 know him better as a dealer in dead endangered wildlife.

They've tried vertical cameras and even lasers but nothing beats a Russian immigrant when when it comes to counting bodies Times Square, according to this fun article in the Times, which tells you all you never wanted to know about counting crowds at the crossroads of the world. It's almost exclusively Russian immigrants who get paid $8 an hour to stand around and count. An engineer who oversees the process explains that the Times Square Alliance—which spends up to $100,000 a year for the data—formerly employed Nigerians, but "at some point we switched over to these Russians." And most of them are overqualified. 66-year-old Alexander Turin, a former French literature professor who left Russia in 1976, says he counts because "sometimes you just need to do the simplest jobs." So thanks to Turin and his comrades, we know that half a million people recently passed through Times Square in a single day.

State senator Carl Kruger, an outspoken critic of Mayor Bloomberg’s plans for Coney Island, is now accusing the city of “extorting” $68,000 from the owner of Tatiana Restaurant and Nightclub, a popular Russian nightspot on the Brighton Beach boardwalk. Tatiana Varzar lost her restaurant in a massive fire in 2003 that authorities believe was caused by homeless people living under the boardwalk.