Ms Matviyenko informed Mr Putin in detail about measures being proposed by the Government to deal with homeless children. According to government estimates, there are about a million such children in Russia, 90% of them have living parents.
The President emphasised that appeals by citizens to the head of state concerning the problem showed that it was being addressed ineffectively. According to Ms Matviyenko, the Government was now drafting proposals on how to solve the problem and they had taken account of the wishes made by all the ministries and government departments concerned.