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| Free Pussy Riot! (Photo credit: Dabid Martinez Perez) |
Members of the all-women Russian protest group Pussy Riot said they were beaten with whips on Wednesday by Cossacks who are helping patrol Sochi during the Winter Olympics.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, who served prison sentences over a protest in a church against President Vladimir Putin, said they were attacked in Sochi as five band members tried to perform a song.
"Under the banner Sochi 2014, to the sound of 'Putin will teach us to love the homeland', Cossacks attacked Pussy Riot, beat us with whips and sprayed a lot of pepper gas at us," Tolokonnikova wrote on Twitter.
Video purportedly of the incident posted on a Russian television website showed Pussy Riot members pulling trademark, brightly coloured ski masks over their faces and performing a song in front of a wall decorated with the Sochi Games design."* The Young Turks hosts Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian break it down.
Our Notes: You may want to look at this video again. It looks like it is staged. The girls are getting hit with rubber whips. The video has a number of cuts to create a certain feel. Did the Russian police actually give the group a chance to disband but they refused after numerous attempts? Didn't actually see anyone hurt other than pride. Anyone care to show me what country this does not happen in? Plenty of video showing it happens all over the US all the time.
Just not buying the spin on this.
