STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: In Russia, the number of abandoned children has climbed into the millions now. And in many areas, orphanages are overflowing and countless kids are left with nowhere to go except the streets. ITN reporter Tim Rogers has their story.</s>TIM ROGERS, ITN REPORTER: They are part of a lost generation, seen by ignored by those who should care. Their numbers are growing every day. Two million children abandoned across Russia, 50,000 on the streets of Moscow alone. Andre is one of them. 10-years-old, he's been living rough since he was 8 at the end of the railway line which brought him hundreds of miles from his home to escape to drunken and abusive parents. He took me to see where he now finds shelter, in a disused concrete cable cover. Inside, it's too small for him to lie down, but it's the only place he can call home. Once Andre was chosen for special music school, studying the violin. Now his talents are devoted simply to staying alive. We asked Andre if he has a dream. He says he doesn't dream anymore, that all he wants is a family. At an orphanage which like all the others is filled to capacity, the former world chess champion Anatoly Karpov came to highlight an issue about which he cares passionately, but which most politicians here ignore. He says something must now be done.</s>ANATOLY KARPOV, FORMER WORLD CHESS CHAMPION: This problem should be solved because these kids, they are our future. And so we must educate them and we must feed them. So this is just the duty of society.</s>ROGERS: There are more abandoned children living on the streets of Russia than at anytime since the revolution. The fact is that their fate and that of thousands of others like them is for the authorities, largely a matter of indifference. Their only hope is that those who are in a position to help will finally begin to care. Tim Rogers, ITN, Moscow.
Russia Struggles to Cope With Abandoned Children