Pussy Riot Members Whipped by Cossacks During Sochi Video Shoot

Just one day after being detained by Russian authorities, members of the protest band Pussy Riot were attacked by Cossacks on Wednesday afternoon.

The group had been setting up a video shoot for the new song “Putin Will Teach You How to Love Your Motherland” about 20 miles outside Sochi’s Ring of Steel when the Cossacks descended upon them. Several members were whipped and thrown to the ground during the attack.

They eventually escaped and tweeted of the incident. No arrests were made, though they reported the husband of one of the members had to be taken to the hospital.

The International Olympic Commission denounced the planned protest — originally scheduled to take place at the Olympic Park — as “wholly inappropriate” earlier on Wednesday.

The Cossacks, conservative and often brutal Russian soldiers whose history dates back centuries and runs through early Tolstoy, have been working as unofficial security for the Sochi Olympic Games.

Watch video below, via Associated Press:

[h/t Washington Post]

[Image via screengrab]

——
>> Follow Evan McMurry (@evanmcmurry) on Twitter

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!