The performance was over before the music even started. A Russian militia group broke up an attempted political demonstration by the punk group Pussy Riot near the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, on Wednesday.
Cossack militia members, an auxiliary police force in the region, attacked the Pussy Riot members with whips and removed their now-trademark balaclava masks in an incident that lasted less than five minutes, the Associated Press reports.
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This comes one day after two members of Pussy Riot were arrested on suspicion of theft and later released near Sochi. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina had recently returned to their native Russia after a speaking tour that brought them to Europe and the United States.
Pussy Riot members tweeted about Wednesday's incident shortly after, including pictures of injuries evidently suffered during the attack.
Дубинки казаков на груди @tolokno . #любитьродину pic.twitter.com/d5gIMjKNiu
— Мария Алехина (@MashaAlekhina) February 19, 2014
"Cossacks batons to the chest," reads the above tweet from the account of Alyokhina.
It seems the group was attempting to perform their new protest song, "Putin will teach you to love the motherland," but militia members smashed their guitars before the performance began. One male member of the group was bloodied in the scrum, according to the AP. Police later arrived but made no arrests.
У одного из членов #pussyriot рассечена бровь после нападения казаков. Газовые балоны, хлысты. Полиция не реагировала pic.twitter.com/EGkXY7N8II
— Мария Алехина (@MashaAlekhina) February 19, 2014
"One of the members #pussyriot cracked eyebrow after the attack of the Cossacks. Gas balloons, whips. Police did not respond," reads another tweet, above, from Alyokhina's account.
Though many have come to know Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina as the faces of Pussy Riot, the two women have said the group's membership is open to all.
"Pussy Riot has [gone] from a group to an international movement," Alyokhina said during an appearance in New York on Feb. 5. "Anyone can be Pussy Riot. All you have to do is put on a mask and stage a protest."
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