Keith Gessen, who was arrested in Sochi today, was released two hours later. Gessen's friend wrote in an email: "I just talked to him and he's fine. He was like "yeah I got arrested no big deal.'"

This afternoon, New Yorker contributor Keith Gessen was detained by OMON (Russian special forces unit) while he was covering the mayoral election in Sochi, the city which will be hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics. According to Gazeta.ru, Russian online newspaper, Gessen was researching a claim by one of the candidates of tempering with the voting ballots.