Well, that was fast. Just yesterday, Pussy Riot was being whipped by Cossacks while shooting their new music video. This morning, it's already out. The Cossacks, it turned out, just added excellent color for a song that talks about the repression of Vladimir Putin's Russia.
The words, with some explanatory links:
$50 billion and a rainbow ray
Rodnina and Kabayeva will pass you the torch
They'll teach you to submit and cry in the camps
Fireworks for the bosses. Hail, Duce!
Sochi is blocked, Olympus is under surveillance
Special forces, weapons, crowds of cops
FSB - argument, Interior Ministry - Argument
On [state-owned] Channel 1 - applause.
Putin will teach you to love the Motherland.
In Russia, the spring can come suddenly
Greetings to the Messiah in the form of a volley from
Aurora, the prosecutor is determined to be rude
He needs resistance, not pretty eyes
An bird cage for protest, vodka, nesting doll
Jail for the Bolotnaya [activists], drinks, caviar
The Constitution is in a noose, [environmental activist] Vitishko is in jail
Stability, food packets, fence, watch tower
Putin will teach you to love the Motherland
They will turn off Dozhd's broadcast
The gay parade has been sent to the outhouse
A two-point bathroom is the priority
The verdict for Russia is jail for six years
Putin will teach you to love the Motherland
Motherland
Motherland
Motherland
Weirdly, though, Pussy Riot does not thank the Interior Ministry representatives in Sochi—all those cops and Cossacks—for providing such great, natural, illustrative footage. They couldn't have done it without them.
New Republic Senior Editor Julia Ioffe will be writing dispatches from Russia for the duration of the Olympics. For the entire collection of her pieces, click here.