A Moscow court on Thursday jailed a prominent Russian activist for two-and-a-half years over his involvement in an opposition protest last year on the eve of Vladimir Putin's inauguration for a third Kremlin term.

Konstantin Lebedev, an aide to the leader of the radical Left Front Sergei Udaltsov, was convicted of organizing a mass riot and jailed by the Moscow city court, Russian news agencies reported.

The White House on Monday welcomed efforts by Russia and China to ease the crisis with North Korea, after pushing both nations to use their influence to change the isolated state's behavior.

"We welcome efforts by Beijing and Moscow to encourage Pyongyang to refrain from provocative rhetoric and threats," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

Residents of the Ukrainian capital suspect the city is trying to pull a fast one on them about its efforts to clean up from a paralyzing blizzard.

A photo that appeared on the Kiev administration's website Sunday after a snowfall of 20 inches (50 centimeters) shows three snowplows clearing a street.

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour urged on Wednesday the need to halt the violence in Syria and launch political dialogue, which alone can help end the country's crisis.

He said: “Foreign meddling in Syria will only deepen the crisis and not end it.”

Finance ministers from G20 states gathered Friday in Moscow for their first meeting in the Russian capital aimed at reassuring markets that the world's economic powers would not slug it out in "currency wars" to boost national growth.

The troubles of the debt-ridden eurozone will for the first time in several international meetings not be centre stage, with the main concern expected to be Japan's controversial plan for "monetary easing" that weakens the yen.

Russia, one of the Syrian regime's last supporters, continues to supply weapons to Damascus under contracts signed long ago, Syria's deputy prime minister said on Saturday.

"Syria has always received and today is still receiving (weapons from Russia). We have agreements signed before the conflict and Russia is fulfilling its obligations," Qadri Jamil told Moscow Echo radio.

Notorious Russian crime boss Aslan Usoyan was buried in a tightly controlled ceremony in Moscow on Sunday, after efforts to fly his body to his hometown in Georgia fell through.

A sniper fatally shot Usoyan in the neck in central Moscow on Wednesday. Known in the mafia world as "Grandpa Hassan," Usoyan, 75, was the head of a gang that is reportedly the most powerful in the former Soviet Union.

President Michel Suleiman traveled to Moscow on Saturday for talks with his Russian counterpart and to receive an award on his role in calling for dialogue and opening channels of communication between bickering parties.

Suleiman's three-day visit at the head of a delegation that includes deputy Prime Minister Samir Moqbel comes following an official invitation sent by Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill I.

Syria peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi will hold talks in Moscow on Saturday following consultations with President Bashar Assad's regime in Damascus, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told ITAR-TASS on Wednesday.

The Russian foreign ministry said Brahimi himself had requested the meeting as he pursues what so far have been fruitless efforts to negotiate an end to 21 months of violence that have claimed more than 45,000 lives.

In czarist times, Geda Zimanenko watched her mother offer the local police officer a shot of vodka on a plate and five rubles every Sunday to overlook the fact that their family lived outside the area where Jews were allowed to live.

Then came the Bolshevik Revolution and Zimanenko became a good Communist, raising her own son to believe in ideals that strove to stamp out distinctions of race and religion. Her grandson, born after the death of dictator Josef Stalin, was more cynical of Communism and felt the heat of growing Soviet anti-Semitism.