The Urals city of Perm, where over 150 people died in a fire in a nightclub last December, held commemorative events to mark a year anniversary of the accident.
The deadly fire, the worst in modern Russia's history, swept through the Lame Horse nightclub in Perm, 1,400 kilometers east of Moscow, on December 5, 2009, when an indoor firework display malfunctioned.
During the day people were bringing flowers and candles to the stairs of the nightclub. On Saturday, the Perm theatre of opera and ballet performed Requiem by the Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi, dedicated to the memory of those who died in the accident.
On Sunday, a church, where most of the victims were buried, held a memorial service.
The club's owners and management, along with the fire show organizers and fireworks suppliers faced charges. However, a local Legislative Assembly deputy Andrei Agishev said "the investigation [into the causes of the fire] was carried out formally, the court's decision was foregone."
Russia has an extremely poor fire safety record. Around 15,000 people die in fires across the country annually. In the United States, with more than twice the population, the figure is around 3,400 deaths a year.
MOSCOW, December 5 (RIA Novosti)
