Michael "Misha" Novakhov is an American radio host and politician who serves as a member of the

New York State Assembly The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits. The Assem ...

from the 45th district. Prior to being elected, he worked as a host on the Russian-language radio station FreedomFM.

Personal life

Novakhov described that he was "born under Communist rule within the former USSR" and that "his father was fortunate enough to escape along with Michael and the rest of his family to America". According to a bio on the FreedomFM website, his

Soviet passport The Soviet passport was an identity document issued pursuant to the laws of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) for citizens of the USSR. For the general purposes of identity certification, Soviet passports contained such data as name, ...

showed "Baku" as his place of birth and "Ukrainian" as his

nationality Nationality is a legal identification of a person in international law, establishing the person as a subject, a ''national'', of a sovereign state. It affords the state jurisdiction over the person and affords the person the protection of the ...

, indicating that he has at least one ethnic Ukrainian parent. In an interview with ''

The Jewish Press ''The Jewish Press'' is an American weekly newspaper based in Brooklyn, New York, and geared toward the Modern Orthodox Jewish community. It describes itself as "America's Largest Independent Jewish Weekly". ''The Jewish Press'' has an online v ...

'', he called himself a "secular Jew". He lives in Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn.

Career

According to his campaign website, Novakov worked in the radio business since 2003. In 2019, he opened "Freedom FM", a Russian-language radio station in Brooklyn where he served as a host. In the November 2022, Novakhov defeated incumbent assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz by 19 percentage points. Novakhov made headlines when he introduced bill A.7612, which, if passed, would outlaw public smoking of

Marijuana Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...

, citing "both the nuisance created by the smoke and the potential health hazards of second-hand smoke." His proposed bill would largely treat Marijuana smoking like

Tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

smoking, which is banned in Public places in New York City, but the ban is rarely enforced.

Electoral history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Novakhov, Michael Living people Republican Party members of the New York State Assembly 21st-century American politicians Year of birth missing (living people) Politicians from Baku Soviet emigrants to the United States American radio hosts