Two members of Pussy Riot have been arrested, detained and then released in a bizarre series of events in Sochi.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, along with a third, unnamed, band member, were detained and charged with theft after arriving in the Olympic city to perform a new song, Ms Tolokonnikova said.
“We were arrested on the 16th at 7 AM, on the 17th we spent 10 hours with the [internal security service] FSB, and today we are in a paddy wagon charged with theft,” Nadezhda Tolokonnikova tweeted.
A photographer, also detained said it took place while they were walking along the shore.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tovWRUvU38
The group arrived in Sochi several days ago hoping to perform a new song called “Putin will teach you to love the motherland.”
They claimed that Russian security forces used force to put them in vans.
They then took to twitter to post pictures of themselves- at one stage including phone numbers for journalists to contact them on.
They were released several hours later without charge.
The band members Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina had recently returned to Russia following a worldwide tour after their release from a Russian prison.
They had been sentenced to two years for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.”
Top Comments
Saw on TV this morning the police in Sochi gave them a hard time, whipping them, ripping their hoods off, and generally roughing them up.
Breaking news ?????? Way too dramatic.