Pussy Riot: Why was punk rock group on Capitol Hill?

Two members of the Russian dissident punk group Pussy Riot came to the Capitol Tuesday and asked members of Congress to add 16 officials to the list of Russian human rights violators who face U.S. sanctions.

Before a throng of cameras and reporters, the women — Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina — said Russian President Vladimir Putin's crackdown on human rights was damaging that country.

"Putin is not leading Russia to stability, but to complete instability and chaos," Tolokonnikova said through a translator.

The pair was arrested in 2012 after an obscenity-laced performance criticizing Putin at Moscow's main cathedral. They spent nearly two years in prison, but since their release have continued decrying the lack of freedom in Russia and harsh government tactics against opponents.

The women said Russia has resumed abusing prisoners, including using mandatory psychiatric treatment for some. They said they hoped public pressure would force the mistreatment to stop.

"Silence is the most dangerous thing for a political prisoner," said Tolokonnikova.

Members of the protest group shot a video protesting the Winter Olympics in Sochi.

The Pussy Riot's video, called "Putin will teach you how to love the motherland", was posted on YouTube and features a song and footage of the band's protests. The band described some of its Sochi experience in the song:

"Sochi locked down/the Olympus under surveillance/Of guns and crowds of cops."

Members told a news conference their treatment in Sochi is symptomatic of dissent being stifled in Russia.

"The Olympics has turned the police state into a total police state and the authoritarian regime into a totalitarian regime with preventive arrests," Tolokonnikova said. "The Olympics has created an environment of sweeping violations of human rights in Russia. We are banned from speaking out here."

By law, the United States can freeze assets and ban travel to the U.S. of Russians deemed to be human rights abusers. Currently, 18 Russians are on a public list of people facing such sanctions while an unknown number of others are on a confidential list.

The 16 people the women want sanctioned include Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Russia's interior minister. Also on the list were officials involved in prosecuting and trying people who participated in a large Moscow rally in May 2012 and officials at the prisons where Tolokonnikova and Alekhina were incarcerated.

The two met for a half hour with lawmakers, who later lauded them as heroes. The group included Sen. Ben Cardin, a Democrat who chairs the U.S. Helsinki Commission, a federal panel that monitors human rights in dozens of countries.

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