If the opponents of market reforms need a caricature to argue their case for shutting the whole process down, the city's recent decision to close its only full-time soup kitchen is it.


There are other soup kitchens in Moscow, run mainly by various Christian charities. But this was the only facility administered by the local government for the growing number of people who have suffered at the sharp end of Russia's economic upheavals.


According to the city's sanitation department, the kitchen was closed down Nov. 17 for various breaches of sanitary regulations.


According to the kitchen's management, it was the fact that this particular soup kitchen had a piece of property to call its own that spelled its end.


Other soup kitchens in Moscow take over restaurants during their breaks in order to serve the poor. But this one had leased property of its own. Now it has been asked to pay the going, astronomical, commercial rate for rent in Moscow to make more money for the city's property management. Obviously, it will not be able to pay, and the city authorities know it.


If cleanliness really is the kitchen's problem rather than overly attractive real estate, then there is no reason for it to stay closed.


It should be allowed to clean up and reopen. But there is every reason to believe that the charity is being forced out to make room for better paying customers. And that is quite simply an outrage.


Of all countries, Russia needs to take care of its indigent. The sight of homeless people in the street or of pensioners begging for food is especially distressful here, where such problems were minimal in the past.


The numbers and plight of Russia's poor are growing as never before and are seen by the man in the street as a mark of shame and of the cruelty of the new system they are being asked to embrace.


But this cruelty does not have to be accepted along with the market, and this fact will never be understood here unless the effort is made now, while the number of homeless and otherwise destitute people is still manageable, to care for them. One full-time, resident soup kitchen for an entire city of over 9 million is far from an extravagance -- it should be just the first among many.


There are so few problems that the government, whether local or federal, has the power and means to cure in a day, but this is certainly one of them. Mayor Yury Luzhkov should step in to reopen the soup kitchen, control its rent and make sure that it stays open.