Pussy Riot beaten with horsewhips by Cossacks at Sochi Olympic Games

Footage shows that Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and other members of the band were beaten.

16:58 20 February 2014

Russian protest group Pussy Riot, who arrived on Monday "to make a political claim about the Sochi Olympics" were beaten by Cossacks as seen on a video that was made available online.

The Cossacks, who were patrolling Sochi during the Winter Olympics, attacked the group with horsewhips. The footage also shows one of the members being sprayed with a substance in the face while wearing a signature ski mask.

The group, who claims that the government is always looking for reasons to arrest them, has been fiercely critical of President Putin, who has been the main driving force behind the Sochi Games.

Meanwhile, one member said that the games were a political event. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, who a served prison sentence after the group’s notorious Moscow church performance and subsequent media storm upon the group’s arrest, said: "Now there is an occupation of this territory, because the city is under total police and security control. We have arrived here on Sunday [and] we are being detained all the time. Even when we were driving our car and walking in the street. So they are looking for any reasons to arrest us.