MOSCOW, July 25. /TASS/. A Russian magistrates court has ordered three members of the Pussy Riot punk band to pay a 1,500-ruble ($24) fine for illegally wearing police uniforms when rushing to the pitch during the 2018 FIFA World Cup final, a TASS correspondent reported.

The court finds Olga Kuracheva, Olga Pakhtusova and Veronika Nikulshina guilty under Article 17.12 of the Russian Criminal Court (illegally wearing official army or police uniform) and imposes a penalty of an administrative fine of 1,500 rubles, the judge said.

Earlier on Wednesday, the court also ordered Voina art group leader Pyotr Verzilov to pay the same fine. All four detained persons have pleaded not guilty insisting that they used the police uniforms as a means of an artistic image.

During the final match of the FIFA World Cup at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium on July 15 the Voina art group leader and three Pussy Riot members rushed to the football field dressed in police uniforms.

Police launched administrative cases against three young women and the man. Moscow’s Khamovniki district court sentenced them to a 15-day administrative arrest. The court barred them from visiting official sports events for three years.

Pussy Riot claimed that the demonstration had been inspired by poet Dmitry Prigov, who created the image of a fair "heavenly" policeman in the Russian culture.

Pussy Riot gained notoriety for its controversial performance in Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral in February 2012. Three group members - Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich - were found guilty of hooliganism based on religious hatred. Each of them was sentenced to two years in a general correctional facility. On October 10, 2012, the Moscow City Court commuted Samutsevich’s prison term to a suspended sentence. Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were released in December 2013 under an amnesty marking the 20th anniversary of Russia's constitution.