Madonna in hot water over support to girls’ group

US pop icon Madonna found herself in hot water in Moscow yesterday after she waded into Russia’s fiercest controversy by calling for the release of three women in the Pussy Riot protest punk band.

The one-time “material girl” and current campaigner for human rights causes arrived in Moscow on Monday to open a new gym for celebrities and then entertain thousands at the Olimpiysky stadium the following day.

But her visit coincided with a courtroom drama pitting three women in their 20s against the growing might of Russia’s Orthodox Church and even President Vladimir Putin himself.

Band members had staged a stunt performance inside Moscow’s massive Christ the Saviour Cathedral during which they belted out words to a song denouncing the Church’s backing for Putin and calling for the Russian strongman’s ouster.

The women have already been in pre-trial detention for five months and now face three years in a corrective labour facility after prosecutors called their crime was so severe “their correction is only possible in ... isolation from society.”

Madonna had already expressed surprise at the case when informed about it by a Russian television reporter in an interview last week.

But she added her voice much more strongly to those of other superstars such as Sting and the Red Hot Chili Peppers in Moscow by calling the case “a tragedy” and underscoring the important links between politics and art.