Energy efficiency in Moscow? Whatever next?

Moscow's current cold snap - where daytime temperatures have been as low as -31 degrees Celsius - must be a serious one. Signs have gone up outside Moscow apartment blocks urging residents to close their windows.The poster reads:

Уважаемые жители!
В связи с резким похолоданием просим Вас соблюдать тепловой контур в квартирах и подъездах (держать закрытыми форточки и двери, заклеить окна)

which translates as:

Dear residents!
In connection with the sharp cold snap we ask you to observe a thermal contour in apartments and entrances (to keep windows and doors closed window, to seal windows)

Moscow's centrally generated heat blasts out day and night. With most Moscow apartments not equipped with any sensible way of regulating this heat, Muscovites' traditional method for preventing overheating is to open their windows. A small upper window, or fortochka (форточкa), is provided for this purpose in most window frames, and it is common to see fortochki wide open when it's -20 degrees Celsius outside.
With utility bills taking no account of the amount of heat (or hot water) supplied, there is little incentive to save.
It is difficult to see how the system could work without Russia sitting on the world's largest gas reserves.