Two former members of the Russian punk protest group Pussy Riot were reportedly arrested in Sochi Tuesday.
"The two have been tweeting they are accused of robbery. Now, they were arrested in central Sochi, that's not far from where the Olympic games are being held." (Via WPTV)
According to CNN, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova were meeting journalists near the seaport when police took them into custody.
A reporter in Moscow for TIME tweeted early Tuesday morning that some of the journalists with them were also arrested. (Via Twitter / @shustry)
Now, local police have yet to confirm any of those arrests.
But both Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova claimed via Twitter that they were forcefully detained by police on suspicion of committing a crime. (Via Twitter / @tolokno, Twitter / @MashaAlekhina)
And NBC's Richard Engel reported the two were released from a police station later Thursday morning wearing colorful masks and singing. (Via Twitter /@RichardEngel)
Sky News gave a translation of one of Tolokonnikova's tweets. "At the time of our detention, we weren't engaged in any protests, we were walking around Sochi. WE WERE WALKING."
Though the two women do say they were in Sochi to do more than walk around.
Tolokonnikova confirmed on Twitter that she and Alyokhina had come to Sochi to protest by recording a song called "Putin will teach you to love the motherland." (Via Twitter / @tolokno)
The two were released from prison in December 2013 after making international headlines for serving two years for "hooliganism" and starting a protest against President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church. (Via RT)
Putin granted them both amnesty before the Winter Olympic Games started, but as The New York Times points out, the pair has continued to be extremely critical of him since their release.
Although the two women claimed they were going to protest as members of Pussy Riot, other members of the band publicly distanced themselves from them earlier this month.
