Attempts to collect money from Russia's rich to help out their poorer compatriots are having little success this winter, which is one of the coldest on record.

The country is in dire need of more money to help the less well-off members of society, in particular the elderly, but many wealthy Russians seem unwilling to help out.

At Moscow's biggest state home for the elderly, the demoralised and badly-paid staff are overworked. The home is desperately short of funds.

The patient's cries for helps often go unanswered.

Patients at this state institution often have to lie in their own excrement

Incontinent patients are often left to lie in their own urine and excrement. Their beds are changed only when there is time.

Staff at the old people's home face a daily battle to feed their patients on limited funds

Items considered standard in the West like disposable pads or sheets are an impossible luxury.

There isn't enough money to give the elderly proper care

Natalia Sheshneva, a pharmacist at the home, says they get some medicines, but only those needed to treat chronic diseases.

"We don't have any preventative medicines, or even bandages, which our patients urgently need," she says.

Her budget is £15,000 pounds a year, but she says she needs tens times that amount.

Many of the patients are not just abandoned by the state, which refuses to pay for anything except the most basic care, but also by their families.

Some relatives don't even come to bury them when they die.

The staff have formed a foundation to try to raise money from companies or individuals.

However, no money has been offered so far.

Some people in Russia have become very rich

There is money in Russia. Since the collapse of Communism, some people have become very rich very fast, but most of them don't want to share their money.

Giving to charity is practically unheard of.

The International Red Cross is running a winter appeal for Russia's poor. It is the first time the organisation has asked better-off Russians to help. However, the total raised so far across the whole of Russia is less than £3,000.

Dr Hakan Hellberg of the Red Cross says good causes are not high on the priority list for most Russians at the moment.

"The present process in Russia is characterised by selfishness, and even greed," he says.

The Russian government says an economic revival is underway, but elderly people at state institutions can see little sign of it.
 

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