TODAY: Putin says he is ready for a runoff as polls indicate he has lost the majority; EU chief calls for Yavlinsky to be allowed to run; anti-Putin banner facing the Kremlin is removed; Triumfalnaya Square to re-open to protesters; Orthodox Church seeks move into politics; Russia stands firm on Syria.

Responding to indication from recent polls that Putin may fail to win 50% of the vote next month, Vladimir Putin says that he is prepared to face a runoff (‘There is nothing terrible’ about a runoff, he said), but that a second round of voting could ‘destabilis[e] the political situation’.  The Election Commission anticipates that over 600 international observers will monitor voting next month.  The EU’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, is calling on Russia to review the decision to bar Yabloko candidate Grigory Yavlinsky from running.  Putin’s reign is already over, says Andrei Piontkovsky: ‘It is now only a matter of time before events make that defeat a political reality.’  The BBC reports on pro-Putin sentiment in the Urals, where the Prime Minister is still hugely popular.  ‘Putin pays our pensions.  He gives us bread and cheese, that’s all we need.’ Postal workers at the federal postal service were reportedly sent a letter saying that their participation in a pro-government rally in Moscow this weekend was ‘mandatory’.