for those who naively believe that Russian authorities just take away licenses from organizations that "violate" fire code regulations, I suggest you look into how Russian elections are being run:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/24/world/europe/24putin.html?_r=1&scp=7&sq=nizhny+novgorod&st=nyt&oref=slogin

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/russia703/

If the government really cared about fire safety, they probably would have closed about 90% of buildings in Russia. Russian government right now is engaged in a full scale effort to repress any kind of opposition or anything/anybody with an independent voice. Journalists, universities, writers are the top of that list. Why do you think so many Russian journalists have been killed recently?

BTW I highly recommend the work of the university's ethnography department documenting life in Russian communal apartments--it is a unique resource. I hate to think of this work being discontinued.
http://kommunalka.colgate.edu/cfm/about.cfm?Open=WhatIsThisSiteAbout&KommLanguage=English