Vladimir Putin's opening remarks:

Good afternoon, colleagues.

We have met today to talk about a tragedy that took place here in Perm. It has reminded us in the harshest and cruellest way possible that the situation with fire safety is far from satisfactory.

These events have reminded us of other similar emergency situations. There was a tragedy in the Komi Republic, where dozens of senior citizens died; there were events in Arkhangelsk, where 16 people, including children, died in a fire. Similar situations arise all over the country. This means that we need to admit that the measures taken are insufficient and are ineffective.

As for relations with businesses, here we are generally caught in a vicious circle. If you grant more rights to monitoring organisations, corruption grows. As soon as the burden on business is lightened, this is immediately connected with laxity, disorderliness and so-called optimisation of expenses - primarily on safety, which affects people's lives and their health.

This means that we must improve existing legislation. In the near future, proposals will be made on changes to the Code of Administrative Offences, and to the Criminal Code.

In addition, the report on the performance of regional and municipal agencies will include the figures on fire safety, especially in sensitive or crowded areas.

A tragedy such as the one that has occurred here in Perm is always the result of a whole array of negative causes. This concerns the owners and renters, who exploit the situation in the broadest sense of the world. But this also affects government officials in a major way.

With regard to the Perm tragedy, the business had violated everything that could be violated in this case. I will not recount the facts, which the entire country knows already. But I still don't understand how fireworks that are clearly labeled in Russian "Not for indoor use" could have been used indoors. No, they just had to go ahead and use these prohibited fireworks anyway.

Four people have been arrested, and I hope that the investigation will be thorough and will provide an objective assessment of the actions of each of these suspects.

But how did the authorities react? A commission had approved these premises in 2002. The commission included a state fire service inspector. And then the mayor's office, one of its departments, granted permission for the use of these premises.

I want to say that according to the investigation, there are strong reasons to believe that the facility was in exactly the same condition when it burned down, taking more than 100 lives. How could they have granted permission for its use?

Later, in accordance with the findings of the inspection, the fire inspector issued an order containing instructions to rectify fire safety violations. And then no officials set foot in this facility for a year. I would like to say that neither the leadership of the district-level state fire inspectorate, nor the municipal-level, nor the territorial one took measures to inspect whether the identified violations had been rectified or not.

In this case we cannot accept the often-used excuse that existing legislation does not allow unscheduled inspections. First of all, we are dealing with public premises, a place where large numbers of people gather on a regular basis. Secondly, existing legislation does allow contacting the prosecutor's office and obtaining the necessary permission for a unscheduled inspection. This was not done.

Such an attitude to the matter at hand can only be classified as reckless disregard. At the very minimum. It is possible that there were other motives for this non-performance of public officials. All versions must be thoroughly investigated.

In the meantime, the Emergency Situations Minister, the Emergency Situations Ministry and the Prosecutor General have focused their attention many times on fire safety measures in public places.

Over the course of a year, in addition to instructions, three selective republic-wide meetings were held. As we can see, this had zero effect.

The investigation must establish, I reiterate, the motives for the officials' behaviour. And I am counting on the necessary conclusions to be drawn on the departmental level in the near future.

Now let me talk about some other issues. First of all, problems in the public healthcare system. I do not want to make any general and premature conclusions or to offer solutions. I consider the Governor of the Perm Territory to be an effective, forward-thinking and practical person. Nevertheless, according to Healthcare Ministry reports, the healthcare facilities the Ministry's experts visited are in a pathetic state. They didn't even find vital medicines that need to always be stocked.

It's good that our rescue service is at the federal level - they are able to quickly deliver the necessary medicine and equipment and evacuate people.

Of course, any constituent entity of the Federation may lack necessary items in a disaster of this magnitude. But, I repeat, according to the reports from the Healthcare Ministry, the public health facilities didn't even have the most essential items that must always be in stock.

Now let's talk about aid to the surviving victims and victims' families. Regarding material support, the Russian Government will send the families of the deceased 400,000 roubles each and the Perm Territory will provide 100,000 roubles. Consequently, the total value of the support will be half a million roubles. Victims will receive 300,000 roubles out of the federal budget, plus another 100,000 out of the territory's budget. Consequently, a total of 400,000 roubles.

Money can help solve many things, but not everything. In this case, far from everything. Therefore, I want to draw attention to the fact that the most important thing right now is consideration for people. We need to provide them with moral support. We need to help the families of the deceased. Let us make do with all formalities and, I repeat, provide them with moral support.

We need to help the victims and those people who are now hospitalised. First of all, help the survivors go back to their normal lives, and second, support them in rehabilitation, which is going to take a long time. We also need to support them in rebuilding their lives after this tragedy. As we understand it, the employability of people who were seriously wounded with severe burns will be problematic and they are going to need help. That help has to be informal in this case.

Now, let's get down to details.