This is something that I never thought I’d read, for a bunch of reasons:
SOCHI, Russia (AP) — Cossack militia attacked the Pussy Riot punk group with horsewhips on Wednesday as the artists — who have feuded with Vladmir Putin’s government for years — tried to perform under a sign advertising the Sochi Olympics.
Until a few months ago, I didn’t know that Sochi existed, let alone that it was part of Russia. I didn’t know that Russia still employs Cossacks to do supplemental police duty. I didn’t suspect that Cossacks would employ their horsewhips even when on foot. I did not anticipate that there would be a Russian band called “Pussy Riot” or that Vladimir Putin would make a political comeback or that Putin would become infamous for feuding with Pussy Riot. I didn’t know that Pussy Riot would show up in Sochi and protest.
But, if you had told me all that ahead of time, I would have said, “Of course Cossacks horsewhipped Pussy Riot in Sochi, how could they not?”
Such a great advertisement for Mother Russia, dontcha think?
My grammy never gave gifts…
Soooo glad to see the Russian men’s hockey team lose today. Vlad haz a sad.
Of COURSE Russia lost at hockey.
It’s because they’re Pussy Whipped, and it’s their own damn fault.
(yeah, bad sexist joke, but aimed at a deserving target, IMO)
BooMan, thanks for covering this. I read about it earlier on Dave Zirin’s blog today and I kept wishing you would pick it up:
Sochi 2014: Where Pussy Riot Gets Whipped by Cossacks
http://www.thenation.com/blog/178445/sochi-2014-where-pussy-riot-gets-whipped-cossacks
He also covered Sochi earlier this week:
The Sochi Games Are Being Held on the Land of Genocide
http://www.thenation.com/blog/178409/sochi-land-circassians-they-cant-hide-anymore
Earlier this week a commenter on Balloon Juice said Putin is looking really good with these olympics, and I wondered if we could possibly be reading the same things.
I am disgusted with Putin and also with the Olympic Committee. Appalling.
Putin seems like prime buddy material for Dennis Rodman.
The scene in Dr. Zhivago where the Cossack horsemen cut down the people in the streets burned into my memory cells.
you can find the leak yourself, but as Esquire reported earlier, this I’d Putin shoving it up the West’s nose. From the embezzlement, to the anti-gay crackdown, to the Pussy Riot incident, this US thoroughly humiliating. It was totally predictable and unsurprising.
When I look at the cast of characters, I am as disgusted with the West as I am with Putin’s kleptocracy. But perhaps more so with the West and the IOC, which should have known better, and did.
Brendon, do you have a link? I think you may be missing a few words in your first paragraph, or maybe auto correct is more evil than usual.
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/putin-olympics-pussy-riot-pierce
Thank you.
I think maybe I thanked you too soon. 🙂 I was upset about this before, but that article has left me feeling even more disgusted and discouraged.
We are deluged with so many things that are completely wrong, all day and every day, that sometimes I just want to go rock in the corner. It doesn’t always feel hopeless, but right now it does.
I heard someone interviewed on WBEZ (Chicago PBS Radio) who said all the Sochi mishaps show the selection process to be deeply flawed. I think this guy was on the committee or formerly was on the committee. He suggested holding the Olympics permanently in some town in Greece, I forget the name, where they were held thousands of years ago. Failing that, his fallback was five permanent sites, one in each Continent, that would rotate.
Perhaps the medalists from the previous Olympics should vote on a secret ballot. It’s not supposed to be about a national showcase or big bucks but imnternational competition so let the competitors select the site.
My dad was a kid in White Russia before the revolution, living in the shtetl in Pinsk. The whole family was scared to death of cossacks, who marauded and joined in with various anti-semitic crowds to execute pogroms. He used to tell us some fairly unbelievable stories about various hair-raising escapes. I’m amazed these cossack guys are still running around.
The Russians are idiots for harassing the band. If they just left them alone, no one would notice or care about their protests. Instead, they send frickin’ Cossacks to publicly brutalize women in front of the international press. Putin may as well just post a billboard in Moscow of himself urinating on handicapped children.
I sometimes feel as if a similar scene could have taken place in… Chicago, say. They would probably have had a more effective media blackout though.
These aren’t real “Cossacks.” The image of the Cossack has become something of a mascot for Russia, and for these games in particular.
These are Putin goons dressed up as Cossacks. Putin wouldn’t dare allow real people of Cossack descent to resurrect themselves as either a political, military, or enforcement entity. Even aping their dress and style (the whips) may be a big mistake.