Militant Muscovites misprize Madonna

The shift in the venue - and day - for the Madonna date in Moscow hasn't dealt with one of more pressing problems facing the event: Russian Orthodox radicals are calling for the concert to be banned. There's been quite a large-ish protest:

"We will never allow her to desecrate our greatest icons. We demand to drive Madonna out of Russian territory," Leonid Simanovich-Nikshich, head of a group calling itself the Union of Orthodox Religious Banner Bearers, told about 100 supporters at a central Moscow square.

"They say that Madonna is very rich, but what is all that wealth if a person has lost their soul?"

Well, it's half of Wiltshire, a couple of London townhouses, and... oh, you mean spiritually. We do like that Simanovich-Nikshich doesn't appear to actually believe that Madonna is rich, either, treating it as hearsay.

Rather splendidly, instead of burning her image, the protesters speared a poster of Madonna - kind of angry militancy crossed with the Dad's Army titles.

In case you've not been keeping up to date with Madonna, Reuters offers a handy reminder:

Madonna has attracted accusations of blasphemy throughout her career. In 1989 her hit song "Like a Prayer" featured burning crosses and statues crying blood.

Well, almost. The song didn't, but the video did. And, perhaps more to the Christian-baiting point, it featured Madonna getting off with a black guy who was representing Christ. It might have been that bit that caused Pepsi to drop her like a anvil, rather than a statue crying blood.

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