As an attorney practicing U.S. immigration law in 1990s New York City–in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union–I joined my colleagues in compiling compelling applications on behalf of former Soviet citizens seeking new, often humble lives in America.

That was back when the abandoned coliseum still occupied its western hold on Columbus Circle.

What a difference twenty years make.

Where I had in the early 1990s walked past cigarette butts and the occasional hypodermic needle on the fringes of Central Park, now rises a palace of chrome and steel, The Time Warner Center.

Where I once might have  bumped into a recent Russian arrival acclimatizing to American life in Coney Island or in Borough Park, I would be as likely now to watch him glide past Tiffany’s on Fifth Avenue in his Town Car.

Today’s New York Times carried a fascinating, painstakingly reported article chronicling the rise of multi-million-dollar condos casting shadows on Central Park and their multi-millionaire Russian owners.

“At the Time Warner Center, an Enclave of Powerful Russians”

It paints a marvelous picture of the tangled web of Russian financial interests and of the men who’ve exported their grudges to the canyons of New York City, where they duke it out in our state and federal courts.

Perhaps those who live in glass houses (or, in glass luxury high rises) should not throw stones?