At 22, 24 and 29 years of age, Pussy Riot's Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alekhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich are part of the generation of women for whom Madonna blazed a trail in the 80s and 90s, making music that was controversial, but always promoted women's freedom. And indeed, she affected them: Pussy Riot cite Madonna as among their key influences. But now that these three young women have been thrown into prison for singing a protest song against Putin in a Moscow cathedral, where's their feminist, and blasphemous role model when they need her most?

In fact, she's about to be right there in Moscow, on the next leg of her current world tour. But while the imprisoned activists and their supporters are fervently hoping that the Queen of Pop will use her Russian platform (Olimpiyskiy stadium, which is a pretty big one) to make a strong statement in their support, so far all she's been able to muster in public is a remark that she's "sorry that they've been arrested".

Sorry? Did Madonna in her heyday ever say she was sorry about anything? She would not in a scenario like this, I don't think; she would have made an excellent protest video on their behalf, perhaps involving some naked writhing and Jean-Baptiste Mondino. But even if she feels that those particular days are behind her, as another member of the generation that grew up with Madge as the example of everything we wanted to be (and our parents didn't), I feel quite disappointed that she doesn't feel inclined to throw her substantial clout behind such a cause. Is she now so distant from her beginnings that she cannot recall the days when her own work faced both harsh critique and the threat of censorship by handwringing conservatives?

Yes, people become more conservative as they age: turning down the volume on their iPods when they listen to the Immaculate Collection, wearing sensible layers to demos (or staying home to tweet about them from the comfort of their £1,000 sofas), maybe even ticking the box next to the name of a Tory candidate with only a slight jolt of self-loathing. But other than her curious silence in this circumstance, Madonna has mostly defied this stereotype: she's still stripping off on stage, still using imagery in her shows that is hellbent on causing provocation, still making films even though every critic everywhere always hates them. In other words, she still frequently shows she doesn't give a toss about the establishment.

So why the conservatism here? Is she so scared of Vladimir Putin? Madonna knows full well that everything she utters will be reported across the globe; that she has the power to inspire hundreds of millions of fans, or at the very least make them aware of something they've never heard of (while the benefits of her involvement there has been ambivalent at best, it is indisputable that few Americans were even aware of the existence of Malawai before Madonna struck up an interest in it).

I'm not saying that one word from Madonna possesses a magic power to make Putin free the three women – I'm not aware that he's that keen on her (though, goodness knows, he does have some surprising tastes). But could a return to her previous outspoken form have the potential to change the situation? Absolutely. Bring back old-style Madonna in Moscow, I say. At best, it will make a real difference to the Pussy Riot Three. At least it would mean that Elton John might have to apologise for saying she's lame.