A middle-aged Russian man drives along the outskirts of Moscow on a snowy night, the stench of vodka still on his breath. He spots a woman standing on the side of the road and immediately turns down that dark road. Driving past her he continues driving deep into the cold forest where the ambient light grows dim. His car pulls to a stop near a van with many faces peering out. A voice shouts and the girls quickly file out of the van in short skirts and stiletto heels, standing awkwardly in a lineup on the snowy ground.
The man examines each girl, selects one to take with him and drives off with her for the night. Night after night, this is a very familiar scene in Moscow, where prostitution is technically illegal but where the sex trade still thrives. One young woman, Tasha, was raised in an orphanage. At age sixteen her friend introduced her to some men she thought she could trust. They suggested they go to Moscow, a land of wealth and opportunity….
I wept, shouted, and tried to fight. Nothing helped. I was beaten and threatened. No way. It was all wasted. I had nothing left to do. They threatened they would tell my family. Because she would have disowned me. I worked for these men for five years. Every prostituted woman in Moscow has her own story, but they all share a common denominator—they all came from a situation of vulnerability.
On the busy streets, in dingy apartments, in hotel rooms, and in the forests of Moscow, countless women spend their days and nights being exploited in the commercial sex industry. Although there are no official statistics, unofficial sources have cited that there are three million women being sold for sex throughout Russia.
Some are simply kidnapped from their hometowns and forced to work in prostitution. Still others are coerced by life circumstances beyond their control, like poverty, homelessness, and a history of abuse. Compounding the problem is the fact that approximately 15, children age out or run away from Russian orphanages each year and many of them have no place to go, or means to earn money.
