A member of the punk group Pussy Riot said she and one her bandmates on Tuesday were detained while walking in downtown Sochi, the host city of the Winter Olympics.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova wrote on Twitter that she and Maria Alekhina were stopped and accused of a crime. She said a third member of the loosely organised group also was detained. Local activist Seymon Simonov said the two Pussy Riot members were accused of theft and nine people were held in all.
Tolokonnikova said authorities used "force" during the detention near the ferry terminal area where booths celebrating the Olympics have been set up. The area is about 30 kilometers north of the seaside Olympic venues. "At the moment of detention, we were not conducting any actions, we were walking in Sochi," Tolokonnikova wrote on Twitter while being held by police.
"We are in Sochi with the goal of staging a Pussy Riot protest. The song is called 'Putin will teach you to love the motherland.'" Tolokonnikova also said they had been detained for about 10 hours on Sunday.
The women were being held Tuesday at a police station in Adler, a suburb of Sochi that is home to the Olympic Park. No charges have been filed. Alekhina and Tolokonnikova spent nearly two years in prison but were released in December.
They were convicted of hooliganism after staging a protest in Moscow's largest cathedral in opposition to President Vladimir Putin's government.
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