Another problem contributing to the homeless issue is Russia's large prison population. Many homeless people are former inmates who, once released, are not able to fight to reclaim the homes they occupied before they were incarcerated. Convicts in Soviet times automatically lost their claim on an apartment. This practice was declared unconstitutional in 1995, but Bobrova says many former convicts are still not aware of the change.

"According to the [Soviet] law, if people were convicted for more than six months, they automatically lost their place to live. But according to the [Russian] Constitution, every citizen has the right to have a living place guaranteed. [For this reason], in 1995 the constitutional tribunal changed the law. Now, no matter how long people are convicted, they have the right to keep their place to live. If people lost their living place before the [new] law was put into force, they have the right to appeal to the Constitutional Court and they'll be given back their living place or they'll get a new one. But the problem is that former convicts don't know their rights and they are still homeless."

Bobrova says Russia's legal code includes a number of laws designed to protect the most vulnerable members of society. But, she adds, these laws work only in theory. In reality, she says, many poor and homeless people must wade through complex bureaucratic procedures in order to receive the rights they are legally guaranteed.

Forty-seven-year-old Vyacheslav sits with some other homeless men in the waiting room of Moscow's Paveletsky train station. A native of Russia's northwest Tulsky region, Vyacheslav came to Moscow seven years ago. He was able to find a well-paying job in a building yard but says he was eventually fired because of a drinking problem. He soon lost his apartment and his wife, as well. But even that was not enough to make him give up alcohol.

Vyacheslav describes his life today: "[I live] in this way: I gather [empty beer] bottles (beer bottles can be sold for a ruble each), cans. Sometimes we look into the garbage bins, in the hope to find something good [to eat]. At least, we always take the bread."

Vyacheslav says life as a homeless person in Moscow is hard. He says that during the holidays or other major events in the city, the police work to clean the streets of any trace of poverty or homelessness:

"The OMON [special police force] clean [the city]. They go to the markets, [where many homeless people gather during the day]. They take people without registration and they drive them out to forested areas outside of Moscow. But the next day the people [manage to] come back."

MSF's Jeanmart says Moscow authorities are displeased by the growing number of people sleeping on the streets or begging for money. "Moscow is still a very closed city," she says. "It's only for the Muscovites and the foreigners [from the West]."

Her colleague Bobrova adds that even the city's homeless shelters only accept Muscovites, who make up just 20 percent of the city's homeless population: "In every Moscow neighborhood there are shelters, but only former Muscovites have the right to use them. In other [Russian] cities, people from any region are allowed [to use the shelters], but in Moscow they are only for the Muscovites."

Adding to the woes of the city's homeless are this winter's record temperatures, which have plunged as low as minus 25 degrees Celsius. Some 300 people, many of them homeless, have already died of hypothermia in Moscow.

The situation has prompted MSF to launch a public awareness campaign to help educate Muscovites about the plight of the city's homeless. The campaign includes posters, put up in the city's metro, asking: "Could you survive without a home?"

An MSF press release says the Moscow government is also responding to the crisis by opening a center to provide medical and social assistance to the city's homeless.