New York Post

Oligarch snark: Blas blasts Russians buying NY apts.

- Rich Calder

They’re dropping tens of millions of dollars on real estate in the city, but Mayor de Blasio says he wants to roll up the welcome mat for Russian oligarchs.

“I see Russian oligarchs as a problem,” the mayor said in an interview with BuzzFeed.

“What has happened in Russia is deeply, deeply troubling across the board,” he said. “The fact that oligarchy is people who basically stole the wealth of their country with the help of their government — by the way, their government is trying to subvert our elections — there’s a whole host of things.”

But the mayor admitted there’s not much he can do when it comes to their actions in city.

“It manifests here as people with a lot of ill-gotten gains buying a lot of property,” de Blasio said. “I don’t like it one bit. I wish I had a specific law or approach to address it. I haven’t found one yet. But, of course, it’s distressin­g.”

Hizzoner, who strolled in a half-hour late to the live interview, was responding to a question about whether he’s disturbed by the trend of rich Russians setting up shop in the city to launder money. The mayor said any additional tax revenue the city gets from such transactio­ns isn’t worth it.

In 2011, billionair­e Dmitry Rybolovlev paid $88 million for a 10-bedroom penthouse at 15 Central Park West for his college-age daughter.

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