17:41, 19 February 2014

Sochi: Pussy Riot members complain about beating by Cossacks

Pussy Riot members going out from Sochi police department. February 18, 2014. Photo from the Twitter account of ‘Voina’ group activists, http://twitter.com/gruppa_voina/status/435830304725794816/

Today in Sochi, Cossacks attacked the member of the Pussy Riot group, by spraying tear gas and beating them with whips, the girls and activists of the art-group "Voina" (War) have reported.

According to Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, the attack on the Pussy Riot was undertaken today in Sochi at about 4:00 p.m. Moscow time.

"Near the banner SOCHI-2014, under the song 'Putin will teach us to love Motherland!' the Pussy Riot was attacked by Cossacks, who beat us with whips and abundantly poured pepper gas on us," Tolokonnikova wrote today at 4:47 p.m. on the Twitter.

The Pussy Riot and activists of the art-group "War" were attacked by about 10 people, said David Khakim, a civil activist, who was present at the scene of the incident.

"We were attacked by about 10 Cossacks and men in civilian clothes. One of them was detained; the police allowed the rest of them to leave peacefully," Khakim wrote on the Twitter at 4:38 p.m.

"Cossacks beat Tolokonnikova, Alyokhina and me with whips. They yelled: 'This is not Moscow!'" the Krasnodar painter Lusine Djanyan also wrote on her page on the Facebook today.