TODAY: Protesters gear up for May 6 anniversary march; poll says Russians believe Navalny trial is corrupt; Putin praises Kirill as 4 million gather for Easter mass; bird group branded ‘foreign agent’; Moscow official shot dead; missing plane found.

As some protesters await trial and others remain under house arrest for taking part in protests on Bolotnaya Square on the eve of Vladimir Putin’s inauguration last May 6, the opposition are preparing to hold another major demonstration today.  A small pre-march rally of a reported 400-1,000 people was held in Moscow last night, calling for the release of those detained. No one was arrested.  The main demand of today’s march, according to the Opposition Coordination Council, ‘is to immediately release all Bolotnoye prisoners and other political prisoners’, and organisers are expecting a bigger event than the 30,000-strong protest that has been sanctioned.  According to a new Levada Centre poll, more than half of Russians believe that the judge overseeing the trial of Alexei Navalny will face government pressure, and almost half believe that he will be convicted.  Over 4 million people took part in a late-night mass on Saturday to celebrate the Orthodox Easter Sunday, which was yesterday, and which provided Vladimir Putin with an opportunity to express gratitude for the ‘selfless labour’ and ‘personal contribution’ of Patriarch Kirill in ‘solving the most pressing issues of culture’.  The father of jailed Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova insists that his daughter is a more mature and wiser person as a result of her imprisonment.