On Thursday, Madonna’s lightning-rod antics and outspoken reputation again created a combustible mix, in a city that this year passed controversial anti-gay legislation that some Putin allies hope to apply nationwide. The US embassy in Moscow warned this week that its Saint Petersburg consulate had "received information regarding a threat of physical violence against spectators and performers".
The governor deployed 300 police to the Saint Petersburg Sport and Concert Complex as priests vowed to burn pictures of the US pop star and sprinkle holy water on sites she visited on her last stop in the city in 2009.
The war of words between Madonna and her hosts was in full swing hours before the concert’s scheduled, and inevitably delayed, late-evening start.
Mr Rogozin used an epithet he declined to spell out in an angry tweet about Madonna’s moral values. "Either take off your cross, or put on your knickers," he wrote. Russia legalised homosexuality in 1993 after the fall of the Soviet Union but only ceased to classify it as a mental disorder in 1999.
Homophobic attitudes run high and are promoted by some of Russia’s most powerful politicians.
The Russian Orthodox Church for its part has seen its ranks swell during Putin’s 12 years in power as the state seeks a reliable national base of support.
"She calls herself ‘Madonna’ and desecrates the cross," said religious activist Kirill Frolov of the Corporation of Orthodox Action.
"We will not tolerate this," he said.