Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak has dismissed a police attack against members of Pussy Riot in Sochi, saying “the girls came here specifically to provoke this conflict.”
The feminist punk rock collective was filming video for an anti-Kremlin song on February 19 in front of a Sochi Winter Olympics logo when Cossack auxiliary and plainclothes police tore off their ski masks and shoved them to the ground, beating and whipping them.
The police were part of Russia’s Olympic security forces in Sochi.
Kozak said the members of Pussy Riot were "searching for it for some time and finally they had this conflict with local inhabitants."
The Pussy Riot video, for a song called “Putin Will Teach You How To Love Your Motherland,” was viewed more than 650,000 times around the world within 48 hours of being posted to the group's official Youtube channel on February 21.
The feminist punk rock collective was filming video for an anti-Kremlin song on February 19 in front of a Sochi Winter Olympics logo when Cossack auxiliary and plainclothes police tore off their ski masks and shoved them to the ground, beating and whipping them.
The police were part of Russia’s Olympic security forces in Sochi.
Kozak said the members of Pussy Riot were "searching for it for some time and finally they had this conflict with local inhabitants."
The Pussy Riot video, for a song called “Putin Will Teach You How To Love Your Motherland,” was viewed more than 650,000 times around the world within 48 hours of being posted to the group's official Youtube channel on February 21.