Friday, February 21, 2014

Meet the Cossacks handing out vigilante justice in Sochi


The enormous scale of Russia's Olympic security apparatus has been well documented — 40,000 armed forces, 11,000 closed circuit cameras, and an all-powerful electronic surveillance system, all designed to prevent terrorist attacks and domestic unrest at the Winter Games. So far, though, the forces making headlines out of Sochi aren't armed policemen or military guards, but Cossacks: a group of deeply traditional militiamen who are seen as both Olympic mascots and vigilante crusaders, enforcing the kind of conservative moral code that has become a cornerstone of President Vladimir Putin's domestic agenda.


On Wednesday, at least 10 Cossacks and suspected plainclothes officers attacked members of the punk collective Pussy Riot in...


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