This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/20/world/europe/pussy-riot-in-sochi.html

The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Members of Russian Protest Group Say Cossacks Attacked Them in Sochi Members of Russian Protest Group Attacked by Cossacks in Sochi
(about 3 hours later)
SOCHI, Russia — Activists from the protest group Pussy Riot said that they were attacked on Wednesday outside a restaurant in Sochi by Cossacks wielding horsewhips and nightsticks. SOCHI, Russia — Activist members of the protest group Pussy Riot were attacked in downtown Sochi on Wednesday by plainclothes police officers using an irritant spray and by Cossacks brandishing horsewhips.
In modern Russia, “Cossack” generally refers to nationalist paramilitaries who adopt the style of the historic Cossack ethnic group from southern Russia and Ukraine. A number of Cossack paramilitaries have been deployed in the area of Sochi as auxiliary police officers for the 2014 Olympic Games. Members of the group were being filmed donning fluorescent balaclavas and singing by the city’s seaport when the attack occurred.
Members of the group said in text messages that in addition to attacking them, the Cossacks pulled off their balaclava masks as they tried to perform and destroyed a guitar. Pyotr Verzilov, the husband of one of the group’s members, said that several members of the group were being checked for injuries at a hospital. Video of the incident showed a man dressed as a Cossack striking several of the women in the group with a whip; then he and others are seen trying to detain the women. Another man in street clothes is seen spraying an irritant from a hand-held canister into the activists’ eyes.
The group arrived in Sochi on Sunday to record video footage for a new protest song called “Putin Will Teach You To Love the Motherland,” and have had repeated encounters with the authorities since they arrived. Several members were detained by the local police on Tuesday and held for several hours for questioning in an investigation of the theft of a purse at the hotel where they were staying, a police official said. In modern Russia, Cossacks generally are members of nationalist militia groups who have adopted the style and dress of the historic Cossack ethnic group from southern Russia and Ukraine. Cossacks have been deployed as auxiliary police officers around Sochi for the Winter Olympic Games, but they have not been prominently involved in law enforcement, and have been viewed as a kind of mascot for the Games.
Two members, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 24, and Maria Alyokhina, 25, were released from prison in December, a few weeks early, after being given two-year prison sentences for hooliganism in connection with a protest song, “God Get Rid of Putin,” that the group sang in a Moscow church in 2011. A police spokesman declined to discuss the episode, except to say that no arrests had been made.
Pyotr Verzilov, the husband of a member of the group, said that several members were being checked for injuries at a hospital. The group later performed again in the city, this time without incident.
The group members came to Sochi on Sunday intending to record video images for a new protest video featuring a song called “Putin Will Teach You To Love the Motherland,” and have had repeated encounters with the authorities since they arrived. Several members were detained by the local police on Tuesday and held for several hours for questioning in an investigation of the theft of a purse at the hotel where they were staying, a police official said.
Two group members, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 24, and Maria Alyokhina, 25, were released from prison in December, a few weeks early, after being given two-year prison sentences for hooliganism in connection with another protest song, “God Get Rid of Putin,” which the group sang in a Moscow church in 2011.