Mark Adams, the International Olympic Committee spokesman, said the pictures and videos depicting Pussy Riot band members being beaten are "very unsettling," but not an Olympic issue, according to USA Today.
Adams said the attack on the Pussy Riot band members, who were imprisoned for about two years after performing in protest against Russian President Vladimir Putin, as a civic matter, even though the group performed in front of the Olympic rings in Sochi on Wednesday, USA Today reported.
Adams said the governor of the Krasnodar region has expressed regret about what happened and is looking into the issue, according to USA Today.
"It's largely an issue for the Krasnodar governor, and he's expressed strong disapproval of what happened," Adams said, USA Today reported.
Adams said the IOC "requested more details" from the Sochi 2014 organizing committee regarding the Cossack incident but felt confident the Olympic charter was being respected, according to USA Today.
"I would purely say that it's a shame if the Olympics is used as a political platform, and that's what we've always said," Adams said, according to USA Today. "We saw yesterday the strong feelings on both sides that these sorts of things provoke, and that's why we ask the Olympics not used as a platform for people to express views and we will continue to say that."
The attack happened in front of a Sochi restaurant in the downtown area as the group performed their new song "Putin Will Teach you to Love the Motherland" and members of the Cossack militia began hitting them with whips and pepper spray, according to USA Today.
The Cossacks were hired by local authorities as an extra security force surrounding the Olympic games, USA Today reported. Pussy Riot's attorney, Alexander Popkov, told USA Today Sports that the three members of the group were hospitalized to treat injuries from the attack.
At about 10 p.m. in Sochi, band member Maria Alyokhina tweeted a photo of bandmate Nadezhda Tolokonnikova with the caption: "Lying with Nadya on beds next to each other in a hospital," USA Today reported.
Thursday morning, the group re-emerged at a news conference outside a hotel in Adler, according to USA Today. The press conference coincided with the release of their new music video, which included footage from Wednesday's altercation.
The band members also tweeted for fans to meet them at a courthouse in Moscow on Friday as the end their tour of Sochi, according to USA Today.
