Several dozen protesters staged a demonstration outside the Russian Embassy in Dublin yesterday to express solidarity with the members of female punk band Pussy Riot who were jailed by a Moscow court last week.

Two top clerics in the Russian Orthodox Church said today that it has forgiven the members of feminist punk band Pussy Riot who were convicted of hooliganism and sent to prison for briefly taking over a cathedral in a raucous prayer for deliverance from Vladimir Putin.

Pussy Riot hit the headlines when three members were arrested after an anti-Putin protest. Now they face up to three years in jail, a prospect that has shocked and radicalised many Russians. Some of the women speak exclusively to Carole Cadwalladr.

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