Tobias Schwarz/Reuters
So much for Putin trying to make Russia seem more appealing on the international stage. Two former members of the female punk band Pussy Riot, who were recently released from Russian prisons after being jailed for two years for charges of “hooliganism,” have been released after they were detained in Sochi by police. Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova were meeting with journalists when, according to Tolokonnikova, they were "shoved into a police van." She said police claimed they were being questioned about an alleged purse theft at their hotel and that she and her bandmember were "dragged across the police office face down." After their release, the women wore their trademark ski masks and ran down the street singing their protest song "Putin Will Teach You to Love the Motherland."