Anything shorter than 20 plus years in prison will not be good enough to send a strong message to would be dubious club owners.

In such a great tragedy, it is tempting for Government to sound tough and harsh, and promise punishment. But it would be far wiser to sound more balanced. Until full investigation is complete, it is hard to say if this is merely an accident, or an accident abated by various code violations. And even if this is the case, it is not likely that the owners are the greedy beasts that everybody now wants a piece off. They themselves lost friends and possibly relatives. After all, it was supposed to the celebration of their seventh year in business. And to talk now about possibly bribing officials to get permits in the first place, is disingenious. This is probably the practice that everybody must follow who wants to open a business. There are many problems in governance in Russia, but Russia is not the only one with such problems. Similar tragedy hit New Jersey, US club not that long time ago. So, before sounding all so harsh, Government needs to remember that it is responsible for code enforecement, for speedy issuance of business licences and perimits, so that business can move on with work without having to bribe someone to get things done. There are many, many that are co-responsible. This is why it is important to see the culpability of owners and other employees. But also not to avert the gaze from the responsiblities that lay elsewhere, because IT IS MORE IMPORTANT TO LEARN AND SOLVE problems, then to look for culprits, and then speedily sweep everything under the rug.

There was no rule of law in the Soviet Union, and wholesale state-practised and state-sanctioned abuse of people was the norm. This attitude of impunity (no one has ever had to answer for their crimes against humanity committed in the service of the Soviet state) and the attitude of cynicism towards state authority that it engendered is expressed in today’s Russia as arrogance, irresponsibility, cynicism towards law, and readiness to corrupt and to be corrupted. Because so many of the guilty from Soviet times transitioned smoothly into positions of power in post-Soviet Russia, the government had – and has – no willingness to bring appropriate closure to Soviet era national and international crimes, and is simply trying to tip-toe past its Soviet deeds as if nothing happened. This has ensured that the social poison from Soviet times continues to make today’s Russia sick, and impacts on everyone’s quality of life. As the article's title states, the culprits should certainly be brought to account. But not just the culprits who presided over one tragic night-club fire. That tragedy pales before the colossal tragedy of Soviet abuse of the entire Russian people, and before the tragedy of post-Soviet Russia washing its hands of its Soviet-era history.

Good grief, Marzipan, linking the Perm fire with the "evils of the Soviet Union" is really crass. Are you saying the Russians deserved what happened because the Soviet Union was a big meanie? Or that Putin was responsible for the fire because he was once with the KGB? Sheesh. In case you have not noticed, there have been other reminders of similar conflagrations in other countries, including my own, the USA. We also had a night-club fire started by fireworks set off indoors, which killed a hundred people, and the organizers of that party went to jail afterward. There are plenty of similar stories in other countries, too. Corruption and block-headed-ness are characteristics of humans in general, not just Russians. Actually I am optimistic about Medvedev's effort to curb corruption in the country, if he can keep it going for a few years. With Putin backing Medvedev, perhaps the president can make some progress. I think the Federal government is headed in the right direction, even with catastrophes like Perm. They happen everywhere, not just in the "former Soviet Union".

To MEJanssen: If you limit your comments regarding my posts to what I actually wrote, you would do better. I simply pointed out that there is a high level of corruption and disregard for law in Russia. I am by no means the only one to point this out. I do believe Russia’s President may have said something vaguely similar. Death from fires in Russia is also running at a rate several times higher per head of population than in otherwise comparable countries. Effects have a cause – they do not crystallize out of nothing. Perhaps it would be more comforting if they did, but they do not. In the case of Russia, one needs to look for the origin of official indifference to the well being of people, and people’s cynicism towards and disregard for government authority. And that cause will not be found in Peru or Madagascar. It will be found in attitudes which were forged in Soviet Russia, and which have not been expiated by post-Soviet Russia. What Russia needs to overcome these negative influences is not Presidential words, but systemic changes in the way the country does things. Beginning with overturning the ghastly precedent that has been so strongly set since Soviet times, namely that the government is beyond the law and can do whatever it likes with people and to people, and that no one need ever fear having to account for his actions in a court of law if those actions had been done in the service of the State.

Your argument is not convincing. When similar disasters occur in other countries, that does not mean they are also "Soviet" in nature. Corruption is world-wide and is a problem wherever there are people. Using the Perm fire as evidence that the Soviet Union attitudes are still guiding Russia is disingenuous, to say the least. If you are still trying to convince everybody that Russia is evil, you might want to change your tactics. That sort of argument is starting to get the opposite effect to what you intended.

MEJanssen, You are quite correct, corruption is a worldwide problem and arguments about the Soviet Union are unconvincing, because they are not based on actual knowledge of living in the system. Deaths due to fire were lower in the Soviet Union than they were in the US. in the 60's 70's and 80's. Indeed the US could only dream of the good statistics the Soviet Union had, they were working hard and their figures were falling, whilst ours rising. In the end the US did get to the same figures in about 1990 (interesting date) but then Russia's fire statistics took off in the shape of a hockey stick. Now think what happened at that time, well it was the adoption of western mindset , western ways of doing things, Russia became the wild west, with all the ensuing casualtioes. No the simple truth is that adopting western practices and the collapse of Soviet control, was the reason behind a spiralling poor fire safety record. At that time people stopped quaking in their boots when they did something wrong and instead opened and stuffed their wallet, taking on free enterprise in everything, including standardisation and regulation. In the 90s I could buy anything, because that was the collapse that the Soviet Union went through, and believe me it was a total collapse of law and order, was it Soviet no, was it western style without control, yes. The government knows this and that is why they are returning to more and more control, call it what you wish, a return to Soviet control, instigating normal controls in a given free market. But that is what is needed, and is going to happen. The legacy of the free for all, is the root cause for the problems we have now, which is devouring our people. It was also the cause of the historical bad US fire figures, which the US has done a great job in bringing down over the years. We are doing the same now, introducing strict regulation and standardisation, which we had before. Ideed numbers have been dropping year on year.