A Cossack horsewhips one of the members of the band Pussy Riot. From the video.[/caption]This morning The Province newspaper had a story straight out of the history books; apparently Cossack militia (also known as "thugs") attacked the anti-Putin agit-punk group Pussy Riot with horsewhips on Wednesday in Sochi, Russia, for trying to play their music in public under a sign advertising the Sochi Olympics.
Cossacks? Horsewhips? Wow! Russia really does still have one foot firmly planted in the 18th Century. But their other foot is on the gas pedal of a brand new Beemer and they also have the latest model iPhones and high-speed Internet.
So hours before I saw The Province I had already seen what I took to be smartphone footage of the attack in the music video Pussy Riot put out on the Internet this morning for their very excellent song "Putin Will Teach You to Love the Motherland."
Singer Madonna, a vocal supporter of Pussy Riot, posted a still of a Cossack swinging his whip at one of the band members to accompany her amazed tweet this morning:
"Are you kidding me? Are the police in Russia actually whipping Pussy Riot for making music on the streets? Is this the dark ages? GOD bless P.R. They are fearless!" she wrote on Twitter.
Madonna also included a link to an International Olympic Committee spokesperson describing the pictures and the video as "very unsettling."
I agree with the IOC flack that the pictures are unsettling and with Madonna about Pussy Riot being fearless. And while I do not love the Motherland I do really like the song.
Pussy Riot continues to rock Putin's world
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjI0KYl9gWs
The music video is a hasty mix of outdoor footage -- mostly the Wednesday Cossack attack, when the group -- four women and one man -- endeavoured to perform their anti-Putin song in front of some official Sochi Winter Olympics branding.
The song, "Putin Will Teach You to Love the Motherland," is a sonic attack on Putin's Olympic Games and all the corruption and cronyism they represent and glorify. Pussy Riot really doesn't like Vladimir Putin and the feeling is mutual.
Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, who spent nearly two years in prison on a charge of "hooliganism" for protesting against Putin in a church, performed in the new music video released on Thursday morning.
The pair were released from prison on December 23 under an amnesty widely seen as a effort to placate international opinion ahead of the Winter Olympics.
Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina said they had been detained three times while trying to film the video since they arrived in Sochi on Sunday.
The Cossacks shown in the video are notable for the perfunctory violence they dish out -- hitting, choke holds and of course whipping. At one point, having run through all his obvious targets, a Cossack matter-of-factly turns his horse-whip on the person filming him.
The attack on Pussy Riot by the ten-or-so Cossacks left the one man in the band with a visibly bleeding wound on his head.
IOC spokesperson Mark Adams has been widely quoted as saying the Russian Federation governor of the Krasnodar region, Alexander Tkachyov, where Sochi is located, had apologized for the attack and was investigating.
It was Tkachyov, acting with Vladimir Putin's approval if not direction, who began using Cossacks, beginning in 2012, to act outside the law as a vigilante force to principally "discourage" internal immigration by Muslim Russians. In a speech to police he declared, "“What you can’t do, the Cossacks can."
During the Sochi Winter Olympics, more than 800 Cossacks are patrolling the city, including the Olympic Village, around the clock.
The best way to listen to Pussy Riot's songs is via their YouTube channel.
Lyrics to the new Pussy Riot single, Putin Will Teach You How to Love the Motherland, in English with some explanatory links
$50 billion and a rainbow ray
Rodnina and Kabayeva will pass you the torch
They'll teach you to submit and cry in the camps
Fireworks for the bosses. Hail, Duce!
Sochi is blocked, Olympus is under surveillance
Special forces, weapons, crowds of cops
FSB - argument, Interior Ministry - Argument
On Channel 1 - applause.
Putin will teach you to love the Motherland.
In Russia, the spring can come suddenly
Greetings to the Messiah in the form of a volley from
Aurora, the prosecutor is determined to be rude
He needs resistance, not pretty eyes
An bird cage for protest, vodka, nesting doll
Jail for the Bolotnaya, drinks, caviar
The Constitution is in a noose, Vitishko is in jail
Stability, food packets, fence, watch tower
Putin will teach you to love the Motherland
They will turn off Dozhd's broadcast
The gay parade has been sent to the outhouse
A two-point bathroom is the priority
The verdict for Russia is jail for six years
Putin will teach you to love the Motherland
Motherland
Motherland
Motherland