The song which got Russian punks, Pussy Riot arrested was entitled Mother of God drive Putin out! - in a strange way, their prayer may be about to be answered. According to Peter Verzilov, husband to one of the jailed punks, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, the jailed women's defence team are currently in talks with Madonna's staff over how the singer might raise Pussy Riot's case during her Moscow gig, due to take place on 7 August. "We really want Madonna to speak on the case. The authorities are very afraid of high profile international attention, so the government are really influenced by what Madonna says," Verzilov told me on Wednesday.
Verzilov, who is assisting in the women's defence, believes that international pressure is now the most effective means for freeing his wife and the two other members of Pussy Riot, Maria Alekhina and Ekaterina Samutsevich. "Only the public outcry can influence Putin. No one has any illusions that the exact sentence will be based on Putin's opinion and nothing else."
Madonna would be the latest (and by far the biggest) in a string of celebrities to speak out in support of Pussy Riot: in June, Adam "Ad-rock" Horovitz of the Beastie Boys DJ'ed at a New York benefit gig for the group; most recently, the rock band, Faith No More invited members of the band not being tried to perform at their Moscow concert two weeks ago.
Chances of seeing Madonna in one of the group's trademark neon-balaclavas this August are good as she turns her MDNA tour into an occasional political weapon. In March, the Queen of Pop pledged to use the St. Petersburg leg of the tour (scheduled for August 9th) to criticise anti-gay legislation brought into force in the city in February: "I will come to St. Petersburg to speak up for the gay community. I am a freedom fighter," she posted on Facebook. Vitaly Milanov, the Petersburg parliamentary deputy behind the new law has promised large fines for the singer if she goes ahead with her pledge, but her determination to brand Marine Le Pen as a Nazi at the Paris MDNA performance, done in the face of threats (now carried out) of legal action by the far-Right leader, suggests Madge is unlikely to back down.
Besides their loathing for Putin, Pussy Riot's primary concern is sexual and gender equality, goals which first brought them into conflict with the Russian Orthodox Church and which they claim are inseparably linked to the current political system. Under the circumstances, Pussy Riot and Madonna are natural allies, politically if not musically- at the very least a message of support seems likely.
The women's trial begins tomorrow on 20 July, with a sentence expected sometime in late August. How effective a statement of support from Madonna would be in securing the women's release is perhaps questionable. Still, as Verzilov says, "the court case is gonna be more of a show."