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Former Pussy Riot Members Detained in Sochi on Suspicion of Theft

Former Pussy Riot members Nadya Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina were detained in Sochi on Tuesday on suspicion of theft.

"We have been detained near the Sochi Sea Port on suspicion of a criminal offense" Tolokonnikova wrote on her Twitter account.

The pair had traveled to Sochi to perform an anti-Putin song called "Putin Will Teach You to Love the Motherland" and were detained on each of the last two days, she wrote.

Tolokonnikova said that she and Alyokhina were held for seven hours on Sunday, and a further 10 on Monday

Following their detention on Tuesday, Tolokonnikova posted several photos which she said had been taken from inside of the police van on their way to the station in the Adler district of Sochi.

Journalist Yevgeny Feldman wrote on Twitter that they were detained for stealing from a hotel.

Feldman said that about seven activists had been detained, including Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina, and that they had been taken away for questioning. Feldman himself was also detained, despite showing his press accreditation.

In August 2012, Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova were sentenced to two years in jail in for performing an anti-Putin song in Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral. In December, they were amnestied, in what was widely seen as an attempt to stem criticism of Russia's human rights record ahead of the Sochi Olympics.

The two women have recently returned from a trip to the U.S. and Europe, where they visited several prisons to compare internment conditions abroad with those in Russia.

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