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http://youtu.be/oXWlQxUNFLY
(Video: EuroNews/YouTube)
THE TWO BEST-known members of Pussy Riot today said they had been beaten and attacked with horsewhips during an action hostile to Russian President Vladimir Putin in Winter Olympics host city Sochi.
The scuffles came a day after the protest punk band’s members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina were detained by police in the Russian Black Sea resort for several hours yesterday in connection with a theft case.
The latest fracas over their stay in Sochi came as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) warned the girls that it would be “wholly inappropriate” to stage actions outside the Olympic venues.
The clash took place as Tolokonnikova, Alyokhina and one other Pussy Riot member sought to stage an action in the centre of Sochi, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of the main Olympic Park.
They donned the coloured balaclavas and tights that are their group’s trademark but were immediately surrounded by uniformed security personnel who appeared to be Cossacks.
The girls were whipped repeatedly with horsewhips and roughly handled, video footage shows. At one point Tolokonnikova was thrown to the ground and her coat thrown on top of her.
Cossacks, clad in their national clothes, are often seen helping the police with their work in the south of Russia in line with a tradition dating back to Tsarist times.
Tolokonnikova herself wrote on her Twitter feed @tolokno that they had been attempting to stage a new performance entitled “Putin will teach you to love the motherland”.
Alyokhina posted pictures on her Twitter feed of her chest showing severe bruising after the clashes.
“My back hurts from the beatings on my body there are bruises and marks from the whips,” Tolokonnikova said.
“Putin will teach you to love the motherland,” she added ironically.
The women went to Sochi hospitals for medical treatment and Alyokhina later posted a picture of Tolokonnikova in the hospital bed next to her.
Tolokonnikova said her husband Pyotr Verzilov has suffered in particular due to the use of an unidentified spray.
The governor of the Krasnodar region which includes Sochi, Alexander Tkachev, said the incident had to be investigated even if the views of Pussy Riot do not reflect the majority.
“All the guily in what took place should be punished,” he said.
Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were sent to penal colonies on a two-year hooliganism sentence for performing an anti-Putin song in a Moscow cathedral in 2012.
However, they were freed early on amnesty in December last year.
The IOC distanced itself from the controversy over the arrest on yesterday, which rights groups described as a public relations disaster that cast a new shadow over the Games.
“I understand that it (the arrest) was not in the context of a protest against the Games,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams said.
Asked whether Pussy Riot would be able to stage a protest inside the Olympic Park where the main venues are located, Adams replied: “If they did it would be wholly inappropriate.”
- © AFP 2014.
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Thanks to the government – Home is unattainable for masses of people that are not disabled…
And to those that are unfortunate to be disabled should forget getting a home here in Ireland.
@John Johnes: interesting comment John. I mean I think it is really fascinating that anyone would compare the two. I mean the reality is most people in employment can infact purchase a home somewhere but many wish to live in a certain location. The sad reality for many people with disabilities is the limited access to employment, mortgage approval and subsequent life assurance to draw down any mortgage offer they may be offered and of course servicing the mortgage depending on the nature of the disability. This along with genuine restrictions on where one can live, e.g. to be near services, healthcare, supports, functioning public services like transport links etc again depending on the nature of the disability and generalising grossly here. I find it fascinating that anyone would bring on the perceived wows of the “typical” “mainstream” or non disabled person into the sole comment on this article.
@Sarah Lou: yeah but that’s John for you
@Sarah Lou:
Most people in employment can purchase a home? The average wage nationwide is less than 50k, good luck with getting a mortgage that would be enough to buy a house.
@Dean: 50000×3.5 +10% deposit, would get you a home somewhere in Ireland. As I said above most people who say they cant afford a home, mean they cant afford a home where they want to live. Also many if not most people buy a home with 2 incomes statistically, so that is 100000×3.5 + 10% and would buy you a home in many areas. I cant actually believe you think a person on 50k without a disability is in anyway comparable to someone on the Disability Allowance without the ability to earn any wage or secure any mortgage etc. This is a little to me like when people were describing individuals in dublin airport going on their jollies as the third world. Unpleasant Airport experience, definitely not satisfactory or acceptable in Ireland in 2022 but no kids were dying from malnourishment in the airport. Get a little perspective.
Owning a home is only a pipe dream for anyone in Ireland regardless of disability or not
@Ronan Horan: Really? I’m someone in Ireland I’ll be collecting the keys to my new build home by the end of the month.
@Roy Dowling: Roy you have been around here long enough to know noone wants to hear your good news!!!!! Just kidding congrats and well done for highlighting that it’s not all doomsday stuff
Not to minimise the challenges faced by people living with disabilities, but the reason for this is the same reason that numerous other people not living with disabilities, also struggle to find or afford a home, the lack of affordable social housing.
Which is a failure of successive governments across all parties that have been in government in the past and three of whom are currently in government, to build social housing.
Not because the demand hasn’t existed dyring the last 35 years, but because they instead chose to keep house values inflated, by limiting the supply and facilitating property developers and investors to capitalise on the artificially created circumstances of turning houses into assets that out performed all other investment opportunities, great for their cronies, but the knock on effect is that houses are now so overvalued, that hedge funds have bought them up to control the rental market, further inflating the price of rent to levels that even people with good jobs can’t afford to pay.
The only way out of this cul de sac of greed is to elect a government that will deliver social housing on the scale required, this will allow everyone that needs social housing to be housed and also lower the prices of houses and rent across the board to benefit everyone, except property developers and hedge funds.
This socialist solution may be a bitter pill for some to swallow, but the alternative is continuing to watch generations of our children leaving Ireland, because they can’t afford to live here…
@David Van-Standen: We know how this works. Sinn Fein/IRA will promise to fix all our woes, including global famine. But if they do get into power will claim that due to years of mismanagement they are unable to fulfill our dreams and will be worse than those who went before as they’ll have no experience of government. What they have is a well oiled machine to rally voters.
@David Van-Standen: The subject is persons with Disabilities and homelessness.
Yet as usual, people forget the main topic to push their own agenda.
Please stuck to the topic,
The topic is disabled peoples access to housing, nothing else.
If you are not interested in the subject but housing for able people instead comment on an article about that subject, as this is not that article
3d printed housing technolgy may help when it gets going properly. Apparently the build is much much cheaper as labour is significantly reduced.
The first thing we want should be for the Government to lay down rules for banks. With regard to mortgages when on disability allowance Banks should be made give these people the loan they need at a reduced interest rate. They could recoup 50% of their loss on mortgages over one million euro – that’d solve the problem but obviously No politician has the ingenuity to pull this off.
Amazing all these comments by people pushing their own issues and nothing to do with the topic.
Nothing unusual with, disability issues being ignored or worse used to push personal agendas.
Our needs and campaigns are regularly hijacked by able people to promote themselves and their agenda.
Disability rights, issues etc will then be fully ignored again until they see the possibility to use us again.
Noteworthy have worked hard to show the reality of my community and its issues.
Sick of the crocodile tears on here for my community. Not just here either, the hypocrisy of most people in relation to disability inclusion is frightening.
Most of it is by accident but it still has the same affect on us.
Educate yourselves on the topic, beome aware of the people in my community.
Here is a shocking thought, ASK THEM?
Julie Helen
No one can solve the Affordable Housing issue in Ireland until the Referendum on Housing is passed. Only then can the laws be passed to remove all the barriers to enable affordable house building and affordable rents for all Irish citizens.
Current Irish Constitution is ambiguous, vague and open to interpretation which suits all those vested interests in high Rents and high House prices.
New home in France for €160,000 (80K site & 80K house.) not €260,000 in Ireland.
37% of cost of new homes in Ireland is completely artificial and has nothing to do with the cost of build. VAT alone on a new house in Ireland is €28,000 .. none in France.
A Referendum is the only way out for all those locked out of home ownership and rent slaves.
https://www.change.org/p/irish-referendum-on-family-home-special-status
@Neuville-Kepler62F: Please stick to the topic and keep your own agenda to yourself.
the topic is the DISABLED COPMMUNITY and Housing
It could be argued that Homelessness is the new disabled?
have your say