AP Photo/Morry GashThe Pussy Riot gals are making headlines again after members of the Russian punk group were reportedly detained in Sochi on Tuesday in connection with a theft at their hotel.
According to reports, bandmembers Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, along with seven others, were arrested and briefly detained by police near the ferry terminal in Sochi, which is a popular place for fans celebrating the Olympics. Police apparently questioned the punk rockers about a theft at their hotel before they were released.
"A survey in connection with the theft at the Hotel Adler is completed, there is no claim against those questioned," police said in a prepared statement, obtained by CNN.
Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were previously arrested and sentenced to two years in a Russian prison after they stormed an Orthodox church to perform a punk prayer "protest song" that blasted the religion's ties to president Vladimir Putin. They were both released in December 2013 and called for a boycott of the Sochi Winter Games.
Following their brief detention in Sochi today, Tolokonnikova told reporters that the feminist punk rockers had been harassed by police for three days.
"We members of Pussy Riot have been here since late Sunday and we were constantly detained since then," she said upon emerging from the police station, wearing the group's signature colorful balaclavas, according to reports. "We are constantly surrounded by people, not you journalists, but people who are shadowing us, following our every move and looking for any excuse to detain us."
And she also posted about her experience in the Olympic host city in a series of tweets.
"On the 16th, we were detained for seven hours," she wrote. "On the 17th, we spent 10 hours with the F.S.B., and today we are in a police wagon, accused of theft."
As for what they were doing, Tolokonnikova shared via Twitter, "We are in Sochi to hold a Pussy Riot action."
Less than two weeks ago, six members of the punk collective wrote an open letter saying that Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina are no longer involved with the Pussy Riot as the group belongs to a "leftist anti-capitalist ideology," while Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova have become "institutionalized advocates of prisoners' rights."