It is common knowledge that I am a dirty old man…..But before I take heat for the title….it is the name of a Russian band…….

Three women who protested against Vladimir Putin in a “punk prayer” on the altar of Russia’s main cathedral went on trial Monday in a case seen as a test of the longtime leader’s treatment of dissent during a new presidential term.

The members of the band Pussy Riot face up to seven years in prison for an unsanctioned performance in February in which they entered Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral, ascended the altar and called on the Virgin Mary to “throw Putin out!”

Maria Alyokhina, 24, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (see photo below), 22, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 29, were brought to Moscow’s Khamovniki court for Russia’s highest-profile trial since former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was convicted in 2010.

On Monday, supporters chanted “Girls, we’re with you!” and “Victory!” as the women, each handcuffed by the wrist to a female officer, were led from a white and blue police van into the courthouse through a side entrance. Streets around the court, on a high Moscow River embankment, were closed.

Okay, I love the name but beyond that these women need the support of the music industry…..they need all these overpaid musicians to go to their rescue…..let the world know the injustice being done.  Freedom of speech is not one of those things that the Russian government thinks is a good idea.