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Sir Paul McCartney is the latest high profile figure to offer his support to Russian feminist punk band, Pussy Riot.
The three women are set to learn if they will face prison for an anti-Putin protest in Moscow's biggest church.
Stars including Madonna and Yoko Ono have called for them to be released in a case seen as emblematic of President Putin's crackdown on dissent.
It took Pussy Riot under a minute to perform the "punk prayer" that could snatch years from their lives.
Storming Moscow's main cathedral, they asked the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Vladimir Putin.
Since then, all that has been removed is their freedom.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alekhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich have spent the past five months behind bars - on trial for charges of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.
Throughout that time Tolokonnikova has been banned from seeing her little girl.
She was allowed to see her husband Pyotr Verzilov only once. He has championed his wife's plight, helping turn it into a global cause celebre. He says their four-year-old, Gera, is inspired by her mother.
"It's been quite a hard time for her. She is often drawing these plans on how to liberate her mum from prison," he said.
"She's picturing how we're going to take trolley buses, tractors and various other pieces of equipment and break down the prison walls and free Nadia. I've even been able to pass some of these plans through the lawyer for Nadia to actually look at."
The women say they were protesting against the close ties between the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church.
Incense wafts across the silent altar of the church closest to the court that will decide their fate. Its rector Father Ptitsyn says the women should be punished.
"If they had done this in a mosque they'd have their throats slit, in a synagogue - they'd be stoned," he said.
"The Orthodox Church is much more lenient - we passed them over to a civilian court but evil must be punished."
The Christ the Saviour cathedral is where Pussy Riot carried out their protest.
It is presided over by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill.
Pre-election, he called Vladimir Putin's 12-year reign a "Miracle of God".
A recent poll by the Russian Public Opinion Research Centre says half of Russians believe the Church influences domestic politics and three quarters believe it should stay out of it.
Some within the Church claim Pussy Riot have bolstered its followers. For others it has compounded the mistrust planted by episodes like the Church's own photo-shopping of Patriarch Kirill's £20,000 luxury, gold Breguet watch - erased from his wrist but still reflected on the polished table.
For many of Russia's young, liberal thinkers this is not about religion - but instead the freshest, most urgent sign yet of an increasing crackdown on dissent.
"Before we had Putin, we had Medvedev and we could go to different rallies and show what we think but now it is a message: do not go, do not show because I think Pussy Riot is just the beginning," 26-year-old Nadia told Sky News.
At the London Olympics, Vladimir Putin said the women should not be judged too harshly - what the court decides will be taken by many as the true sign of how he intends to play the next six years of his latest reign.
