Vladimir began his day at 2 p.m. at Kursky Station. "I'm collecting money here," the teenager said, sitting at the stairs leading out to the platforms. "My friends are outside selling old magazines."
With their collected funds, Vladimir said, they will buy one meal, and use the remainder for butorphanol, an opiate analgesic that, at 50 rubles an ampule, is a cheap alternative to heroin. At night, they plan to return to sleep in an attic atop a building near the Timiryazevskaya metro station.
When asked why he left his family, also living in Moscow, Vladimir became withdrawn and would only say: "My friends are here."
Because of the mobile nature of street children, their number is hard to assess, said Justine Simons, a psychologist and project coordinator for the international medical organization Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, at a news conference in January. The Department of Social Population Protection in Moscow says the city has 4,142 children who are beznadzorniye, neglecte ...
