New York families may be facing high crime rates — but Mother Russia is staying nice and safe in the Bronx.
NYPD cops have have been stationed outside of a massive Russian Diplomatic Compound in the borough around-the-clock for weeks, providing “security” to the residents there in the wake of the war in Ukraine, The Post has learned.
Two NYPD police vans, one of which was from the 50th precinct, were spotted outside of the towering, Soviet-esque complex Thursday — and law enforcement sources say they’re there to protect the building and its inhabitants and prevent any potential incidents.
“There is always someone” there, a police source explained.
The 24-hour protection detail includes at least two officers at the site at all times, but occasionally supervisors and members of the NYPD’s counterterrorism unit also stop by, sources said.
The 20-story building, shrouded in tall, steel fencing outfitted with security cameras, houses the families of diplomats who serve in the Russian Mission to the United Nations. It has also been accused of being base for some of the authoritarian nation’s many spies.
Law enforcement sources say the police presence is akin to what they’d provide to certain houses of worship or other high profile establishments in times of geopolitical discord, such as bombings or wars.
“Due to the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia, the NYPD is providing security deployments to Ukrainian and Russian locations,” a spokesperson for the NYPD explained in an email without providing further details.
It’s not clear if the NYPD is also gathering intelligence while surveilling the compound.
When a reporter rang a bell to ask for comment on the security presence a man who spoke only in Russian declined to speak to The Post.
In late February just days after the war started, dozens of New Yorkers staged a demonstration outside of the building to protest the war and demand peace in Ukraine, the Riverdale Press reported.
Phil Armstrong, a retired Vietnam veteran, told The Post he’s been protesting outside of the building for about a month and each Sunday, there’s a demonstration outside of the gates.
“Every day they get UPS, they get FedEx, they get DHL, Amazon Prime deliveries, all these companies say they’re not doing business with Russia, yet they deliver inside the gate,” Armstrong, 72, griped as he held an American and Ukrainian flag.
“I can’t sit home and watch this go on. Right now the Russians are killing, raping, and torturing people for no reason other than Putin’s glory.”
Professor Brian Levin, the Director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, said in times of geopolitical conflict, hate attacks increase.
“We have seen the start of a very small, yet increasing stream of anti-Russian attacks, which were virtually non-existent in the years immediately prior,” Levin told The Post.
He pointed to a series of anti-Russian attacks in North America since the war started.
In San Diego, a Russian-themed restaurant received threatening and hateful messages and in Washington D.C., another was vandalized, Levin, a former NYPD officer who tracks hate crimes, said.
Recently in Brooklyn, a man with a pro-Russian Donetsk flag supporting the eastern separatist region in Ukraine was assaulted and in Calgary, Canada, a Russian Orthodox church was vandalized, Levin said.
“The problem, however, appears far more pronounced across Europe,” the professor explained.
