President Putin Instructs Government To Take Care Of Homeless Children

Vladimir Putin has instructed the government and Vice Premier Valentina Matviyenko personally to take care of the problem of homeless children. It is necessary to develop "a system of measures to strengthen the family and popularize a healthy lifestyle," said the Russian president in a call-in aired live on TV. Identifying the homelessness problem as "acute and complicated," he said many of the homeless children nowadays have parents who are alive and well. Some of these children come from former Soviet republics, he added.