Sochi , Russia ( CNN ) -- After several tumultuous days that included police detentions , interrogations and a public flogging from angry Cossacks , the dissident punk band Pussy Riot struck back . The controversial Russian musicians released an angry music video on Thursday slamming Russian President Vladimir Putin 's crackdown on free speech and political expression . They also took aim at the Sochi Olympics ' whopping $ 50 billion price tag . Titled `` Putin Will Teach You To Love Your Country , '' the music video included footage filmed Wednesday of Cossacks -- modern-day descendants of 19th-century horsemen who pushed the boundaries of the Russian empire -- flogging the women moments after they began lip-synching their song next to a large `` Sochi 2014 '' sign in the Olympic city . `` The goal is to show what it 's like to be a political activist in Olympic Sochi , '' Pussy Riot member Maria Tolokonnikova told CNN . Video shows Pussy Riot members beaten by Cossacks . The band invited foreign media to a news conference at a hotel in Sochi for the unveiling of the new video on Thursday . But upon arrival , a bizarre scene unfolded . An employee at the hotel informed journalists a conference room would not be available . Outside , uniformed police and security officers in civilian clothes awaited the arrival of the band , alongside several dozen journalists . Also waiting , at least five male university students accompanied by a man dressed in a giant chicken suit . When four women from the band walked up , arms locked , the university students pulled out raw chickens and began chanting `` We like sex with chicken '' in mangled English . The students and costumed chicken then attempted to disrupt the makeshift news conference given by the women in the park outside the hotel . `` We do n't understand their behavior and that 's why we 're protesting , '' said 23-year old Sergei Barashov , one of the members of the anti-Pussy Riot demonstrators . Barashov said he was afraid the punk band would desecrate a Russian Orthodox cathedral that had been recently constructed on the outskirts of Sochi 's Olympic Park . Pussy Riot rocketed to international fame after the provocative musicians stormed into a Moscow cathedral in 2012 and performed an expletive-ridden song denouncing Putin . Tolokonnikova and her band mate Maria Alekhina were sent to prison on charges of hooliganism and inciting religious hatred . Russian authorities released the pair shortly before the start of the Olympics in Sochi along with several other high-profile critics of the Russian government . Prison failed to silence the two young women . They immediately went back to denouncing the Kremlin , as well as conditions inmates endure in Russian prisons . In the new song , Pussy Riot sings about the `` constitution being lynched , '' government pressure against Russia 's lone independent TV station and of last week 's sentencing of environmentalist Evgeny Vitishko to a penal colony for three years . Vitishko , an outspoken critic who drew attention to environmental damage caused by the massive construction around the Sochi Olympics , has gone on hunger strike , according to his defense attorney . On Tuesday , police in Sochi detained members of Pussy Riot , along with at least seven human rights activists and journalists in connection with the investigation into an alleged theft at the band 's hotel . Hours later , all charges were dropped and the detainees were released from the police station , located just a few minutes ' drive from the Olympic Torch . The detention , as well as the televised attack by the Cossacks , have put the International Olympic Committee on the defensive . `` Personally I found the video and pictures very unsettling , '' said Mark Adams , a spokesman for the IOC . `` It happened in Sochi , but it was unrelated to an Olympic venue and was not , as far as I know , a demonstration against the Olympics , '' Adams said on Thursday . In its new song , Pussy Riot also takes aim at a quirk of bathroom interior designing in Sochi that became a social media joke in the Olympic Village and around the world . `` They took gay pride to the washroom , '' the band sings . `` And made a two-seat toilet a priority . ''
At a bizarre news conference in Pussy , the International Olympic Committee unveils a video critical of Cossacks . The video features footage taken of band members being attacked by Vladimir Putin . Man in giant chicken costume was part of fowl-themed group attempting to disrupt event . On last week 's , police in Sochi detained members of the dissident band .