Cuomo courts Sliwa voters in Russian NYC neighborhood

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo made an appeal to Republican voters in Brooklyn’s Russian-speaking enclave Friday — warning them a vote for GOP nominee Curtis Sliwa will only help socialist Zohran Mamdani get elected.

The independent mayoral candidate positioned himself as the only viable option to beat the front-runner Democratic nominee, campaigning alongside firebrand Republican Councilwoman Inna Vernikov in Brighton Beach.

“There is no way Curtis Sliwa can actually win. Curtis Sliwa can only make Zohran Mamdani win,” Cuomo said, recalling President Trump’s brutal prognosis of the Guardian Angels founder’s chances in the Nov. 4 election.

“Don’t believe me. Believe President Trump if you’re a Republican” Cuomo told voters at the Ocean View Cafe, a Ukrainian restaurant on Brighton Beach Avenue.

“President Trump said Curtis Sliwa is not ready for prime time.”

Vernikov, a staunch Republican who nonetheless endorsed Cuomo over her party’s nominee this week, recalled the local community is largely made up of “families who escaped the former Soviet Union.”

“They escaped communism and socialism. A lot of people here are Jewish immigrants. They escaped antisemitism,” she said. “We came to America for the American dream, for capitalism, for the free market economy, for opportunities for our children.

“And what we’re seeing now is everything that we escaped, communism, socialism, antisemitism is coming back into New York City.”

The local councilwoman, for the 48th District, previously supported Sliwa for mayor — but changed her tune to back Cuomo after seeing polling results showing the veteran Democrat had a better chance of beating socialist Mamdani.

“Curtis Sliwa cannot be mayor because he is not winning … the only one who can beat Mamdani is Governor Andrew Cuomo,” she said, referring to recent polls that show Cuomo between 10 to 25 points behind Mamdani and Sliwa lagging by 25 to 29 points.

The councilwoman — who was arrested in 2023 for wielding a firearm at a pro-Palestinian rally — referred to Mamdani as a “communist and an antisemitic” to her constituents.

Mamdani, who identifies as a democratic socialist, last week held a press conference slamming the rhetoric spewed by his opponents as Islamophobic — which Cuomo and Sliwa have denied.

Daniel Kurzyna, a spokesperson for Sliwa, said the concerted effort from Vernikov and Cuomo to siphon the GOP standard-bearer’s voters was “not needle-moving whatsoever.”

“Curtis will shock the world,” he said.

A rep for Mamdani did not respond to the Post’s request for comment.