Putin Lays Red Roses to Fire Victims and Sends Angry Looks to Local Officials

Vladimir Putin visited the city of Perm to pay tribute to the victims of fire in the local Lame Horse night club, which killed 117 people. The head of the Russian government blamed the city entrepreneurs connected with the work of the club and said that state and regional official were also accountable for the tragedy, because their criminal connivance became an indirect cause of people’s death, Interfax reports.

Photo: Putin Lays Red Roses to Fire Victims and Sends Angry Looks to Local Officials

“This attitude can be categorized as negligence, at least,” Putin stated at a special meeting in Perm. The prime minister reminded that an inspector of the state fire emergency service and the city administration gave their permission for the exploitation of the club, despite numerous violations in the field of fire safety. The club was never inspected afterwards.

Putin also accused officials of the Perm regional government of their indifference to fire safety in the region on the whole.

“I don’t want to make any hasty conclusions, but I would like to point out the following. The governor of the Perm region is considered to be a progressive and contemporary official. However, reports from the Healthcare Ministry say that many of the inspected healthcare objects in the region are in a deplorable state,” Putin said.

As for relations with business, “we’ve been going round in circles here,” Putin said. “The more rights supervising agencies get, the faster corruption grows,” he explained.

“The businessmen related to this particular night club in Perm [Lame Horse] have violated everything that could be violated. They used fireworks indoors although it was clearly stated on them on Russian: not to be used indoors.”

Putin also said that the Russian government would take measures to pass a number of amendments in the field of fire safety laws after the terrible tragedy in Perm.

Before the meeting at the regional government Putin laid a bouquet of red roses in front of the infamous night club. Putin also talked to relatives of those who were killed in the horrific fire. It was about 2 a.m. in Perm.

Four more people, who suffered in the night club fire, died in city hospitals overnight: a 50-year-old man and three women in their twenties.

The fire has thus claimed the lives of 117 people. Other patients remain in severe and extremely severe condition.