Two activists of the Russian group Pussy Riot have been arrested by its own account at the edge of the Olympic Games. Apparently they had put forward a Putin-critical song. Also, a prominent human rights activist is held accordingly.

The Russian activists Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Aljochina of Pussy Riot have been arrested after their own representation in Sochi. They were dragged with several other activists from brutal violence in a police car, the women announced on Tuesday the short message service Twitter. There are still, however, no official confirmation of the arrest.

Tolokonnikowa wrote that they had been “accused of rape.” Also Aljochina announced to have been arrested. The spokesman of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Mark Adams, the dpa news agency said: “We are waiting for official confirmation, but it seems to be a case for local authorities to me.”

The two activists had been released only in December from a Russian prison camp.

According to a Twitter message from Tolokonnikowa the activists were arrested just last Saturday and interrogated for 20 hours by the Russian secret service, tweeted Tolokonnikova. Currently both Pussy Riot members were in police custody and would be transported in a police van to Adler, near Sochi.

Pussy Riot was, according to Tolokonnikovas in the city of the Winter Olympics in the Black Sea, to shoot a video with the title “Putin brings you on to love the homeland”. The two were arrested on Saturday after a demonstration in a church, as they chanted the song, so Tolokonnikowa in a short message. Olympics in Sochi is considered prestigious project of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The two activists had participated in February 2012 at a “punk prayer” in Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral, which was directed against Putin. They were sentenced on charges of “hooliganism” for two years in a prison camp until in December reached an amnesty.

With the police action apparently also the prominent human Semyon Simonov has been arrested by the organization Memorial. This was announced by the civil rights activists on Tuesday also with on Twitter.

He’ll put the Pussy Riot activists in the police quarters in Eagle. Simonov said that the ten activists are accused of theft. The human rights activists had criticized in particular the exploitation of migrant workers in the construction of Olympic facilities.

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