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Two members of the internationally-famous band Pussy Riot were arrested in Sochi by Russian National police today. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina told reporters they were merely walking down the street when police, who had been following them for days, detained them, claiming they had stolen items from their hotel.
“We were just walking around Sochi when they grabbed us,” Tolokonnikova told the New York Times by telephone from a police station. “They told us we are suspected of theft. Of course there has been no theft.”
Tolokonnikova said she and other members of Pussy Riot had been constantly followed since arriving in Sochi on Sunday evening. She said they spent several hours being questioned by security services on Monday, as the group attempted to plan a performance in the city.
As of early afternoon, she had not yet been questioned, and said “nobody is telling us anything” about what will happen next.
“We are in Sochi in order to carry out a Pussy Riot action,” wrote Tolokonnikova on Twitter shortly after the detention. “The song is called, ‘Putin will teach you how to love the motherland'”.
Semyon Simonov, a local human rights activist who was also detained along with the group, said that they had been accosted by police while walking along the street, and roughly bundled into a police van.
NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel reported via Twitter that one witness said “around 40” people were arrested at the time, and some of those were members of the press. Another stated only nine were arrested.
So far three journalists, activists detained with pussy riot released after questioning abt ” theft” pic.twitter.com/N4UiIQZsBm
— Richard Engel (@RichardEngel) February 18, 2014
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Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina were arrested by Russian police in early 2012 for “hooliganism” — to deep international outrage — and were released in December as a good will gesture by Vladimir Putin ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.
Image by Richard Engel via Twitter