A Moscow court has found four people guilty of rioting and attacking police, sentencing two of them to prison terms of three and a half years, one to two and a half years, and letting the fourth protester go free under a suspended sentence.

As the verdict was pronounced, about 100 people protested near the court building, prompting police to carry out several detentions.

The only convict to receive a suspended sentence was Elena Kokhtareva, who had pleaded guilty during the court proceedings. Opposition activist Ilya Gushchev, who pleaded guilty to some of the charges, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison - six months less than the minimum punishment of three years behind bars ordered by the criminal code for participation in mass unrest.

The maximum sentence allowed for the crime is eight years.

Two more opposition activists were sentenced to three and a half years in prison each.

As the sentences were pronounced on Monday afternoon, around 100 people held an unsanctioned protest near the court building, shouting "Freedom!" and unfurling a banner reading "Russia is not a prison." After repeatedly asking the protesters to disperse, police officers detained several people.

The European Commission said it will provide up to €125 million from Monday till the end of November to compensate food producers coping with Moscow's food ban.

"The exceptional measures announced today will include market withdrawals especially for free distribution, compensation for non-harvesting and green harvesting. The financial assistance will cover all producers whether they are organized in producers organizations or not," the European Commission said in the statement.

Among the products that will get the special support are in season varieties that have no immediate storage option or market available. They include tomatoes, carrots, white cabbage, peppers, cauliflowers, cucumbers, and gherkins, mushrooms, apples, pear, red fruits, table grapes and kiwis.

"All farmers of the concerned products - whether in producer organisations or not - will be eligible to take up these market support measures where they see fit. Acting early will provide an efficient support to the price paid to producers on the internal market, help the market adjust and be cost effective," said EU Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner.

The EU member states are scheduled to meet for further discussions on Friday.

David Cameron said the UK won't deploy "boots on the ground" in Iraq, but could arm Kurdish fighters in its efforts to aid the fight against IS jihadists. Meanwhile, the Defence Secretary said British involvement in Iraq could last for months.

"We are not going to be putting boots on the ground, we're not going to be sending ine British Army," Cameron said.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast on Monday, Cameron reiterated that British troops would not be sent to Iraq to combat the threat of Islamist extremists.

"Britain is not going to get involved in another war in Iraq," the prime minister said. He added that Kurdish forces were the "first line of defence" against Islamic State fighters.

However, while ruling out ground troops, he promised tougher action.

Against a backdrop of widespread bloodshed and devastation in Gaza, a mounting body of evidence indicates military equipment used by Israel during Operation Protective Edge was made in the UK.

As violence wanes in the besieged Palestinian enclave, scrutiny of UK arms exports to Israel is amplifying. While Cairo peace talks between Israel and Hamas bring a sense of reprieve to Gaza's rubble-laden streets, damning evidence indicates Israel used UK military wares during Operation Protective Edge. UK government statements, photographic evidence, IDF commanders' recent praise of drones deployed in Gaza, and Israel's purchasing patterns of foreign military equipment all appear to indicate this is the case.

Britain's arms trade relations with Israel are extremely lucrative. Since 2010, British authorities have presided over the sale of £42 million worth of military produce to the Middle Eastern state. And on an annual basis, the British government grants up to £15 million worth of licenses to UK defense firms for the export of military equipment to Israel. These figures stem from in-depth research conducted by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT), a London-based NGO dedicated to tackling the global arms industry's impact on human rights.

Approximately 44 defense companies spanning Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland broker UK arms exports to Israel, according to the CAAT. Four such firms are Raytheon, Schleifring Systems, Selex Galileo, and UAV Engines. Each of these defense factories epitomize an acutely profitable yet contentious set of military trade relations between Britain and Israel. Amidst nationwide concern over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, there is strong reason to surmise drone engines, bomb components and other parts produced by these firms were deployed by the IDF during its recent military attacks on the region.

An adviser to Ukrainian Interior Minister, Anton Gerashchenko, has demanded on his Facebook page that journalists - especially Russian - do not disturb him concerning missing Russian journalist Andrey Stenin.

"As soon as we find him, dead or alive, we will inform the media. Meanwhile, I am asking reporters, especially Russian ones, not to disturb me on this matter," Gerashchenko posted on the social network.

In the video interview to channel 112 which was attached to the post, Gerashchenko repeatedly mispronounces Stenin as "Senchin," and describes the journalist's photos of injured soldiers - quite typical pictures from a war zone - as "the photos of tortures." Then, Gerashchenko goes on to say that "those aren't photojournalists, those are accomplices in the crimes of terrorists."

Earlier on Saturday, the adviser told the same channel that Stenin was on the wanted list.

On Tuesday, however, Gerashchenko told Latvian media that Stenin "was arrested by our security service."

The US is pressuring Russia to hand over NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden to face espionage charges. However, it routinely denies Russian requests to hand over suspected criminals living in America.

"Law agencies asked the US on many occasions to extradite wanted criminals through Interpol channels, but those requests were neither met nor even responded to," spokesman for the Russian Interior Ministry Andrey Pilipchuk said on Monday.

He named Ilyas Akhmadov and Tamaz Nalbandov as examples of people living in the US, who Russia unsuccessfully tried to get for prosecution.

Akhmadov, a former officer in the Soviet Union's Red Army, joined the militant movement in the Russian Republic of Chechnya in the early 1990s, fighting for some time along with the notorious terrorist Shamil Basayev. He is wanted in Russia over his connection to crimes committed by the insurgents.

He served as an official of the short-lived 'government of Ichkeria', an entity which wanted to form a sovereign Islamist state on Chechen territory. In 1999, Akhmadov was appointed 'Foreign Minister of Ichkeria', and toured Western countries to rally support for his cause.

A nationalist party MP is suggesting the Russian government introduce more restrictions on food imports, covering nations that have an association agreement with the EU, including Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia.

Roman Khudyakov of the Liberal Democratic Party caucus of the State Duma has said that, since the association agreement with the European Union prepares the conditions for a free trade zone with the bloc, countries that have signed the document would soon be flooded with European goods, including foodstuffs banned in Russia.

"We must completely ban imports from Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine. We have to protect our markets from cheap, low-quality European goods that are now massively entering these countries. They have made their choice and will have to solve the demand problems for their products by themselves as well," Khudyakov said in an interview with popular Russian daily Izvestia.

He added that Russian state control agencies had repeatedly registered and rejected goods of unacceptable quality coming from the three countries.

Moscow believes the West has more influence on various paramilitary forces in Ukraine - sponsored by local oligarchs - than Kiev does, Russian FM said citing the latest bickering between Right Sector and the Interior Ministry.

"The authorities in Kiev are not in control of the numerous paramilitary forces, including Right Sector, which, we estimate, comprises a large portion of the National Guard. The demarche of Right Sector towards the Ukrainian Interior Minister speaks for itself," Sergey Lavrov said, adding that existence of armed groups sponsored by Ukrainian oligarchs, such as the Azov and Dnepr battalions, poses a great security threat.

"We work with our Western partners in Europe and the United States who can really influence those paramilitary units that don't answer to the central government in Kiev. We know the West has such influence," he added.

Lavrov was referring to the weekend ultimatum of the far-right group, which threatened to pull out its troops from eastern Ukraine and march on Kiev unless President Petro Poroshenko fires several police officials, including a deputy interior minister. The group later reduced its demands, saying that the release of its activists previously arrested by the police was sufficient.

#Lavrov: We strongly urge our partners in Washington to influence Kiev and strive to stop this fratricidal war #Ukraine

- MFA Russia (@mfa_russia) August 18, 2014

The comments from the top Russian diplomat came as he reported on the progress achieved during the Sunday meeting with his counterparts from Ukraine, Germany and France. The roundtable produced no concrete agreements, but the parties involved said some progress was made on the issues of humanitarian aid and border control.

Part of the war cycle is just the general feeling or attitude shifts due to economics. We seem to be headed for such a fateful turn.

The police domestically have turned militaristic.

This is a very serious issue far beyond what most people would even guess. It tends to show the changing attitudes within society.

Couple this with Obama who seems to think he was elected to start a war. We are approaching a serious turning point that may reshape the world as did 1932 following the economic trend of the Great Depression.

The year 1932 saw Mao come to power in China. In Germany, Hitler came to power. FDR came to power in the United States. Even in Japan, the seeds of war were planted with the May 15 Incident, in which Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai was assassinated by young military officers in an attempted coup. The killing spread fear among Japan's liberal politicians and strengthened the militarists, who eventually led the country into the catastrophic Pacific War.

1932, which was also the low in the markets from 1929. The year 2007 began the changing process and we should be looking ahead now [for] the war cycle will turn upward.

Vladimir Putin at the 2007 Munich Security Conference, follow-up questions and remarks on Diplomacy and External Affairs.


CONFERENCE CHAIRMAN HORST TELTSCHIK: Thank you very much for your important speech. We heard new themes, including the issue of global security architecture - one was not in the foreground over the last few years - disarmament, arms control, the issue of the NATO-Russian relations, and cooperation in the field of technology. There are still a whole number of questions and Mr President is ready to answer.

PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN: First of all I would like to thank you for your questions. Very interesting. It is a shame that we have little time left because I would be pleased to have a separate discussion with all of you. I very much enjoy this; I like it.

Unipolar World

QUESTION: You talked about the danger of a unipolar world in which one sovereign makes a decision without consulting anyone else. In many people's opinion, in Russia we are seeing an increasingly unipolar government where competing centres of influence are forced to tow the party line, whether it be in the State Duma, the regional leadership, the media, business communities or non-governmental organisations. Would a unipolar government be such a reliable partner when the issue of energy security is at stake?

PUTIN: Today the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the United Russia Party, the Liberal Democratic Party and other political forces as well sit in the Russian parliament. And their basic positions differ significantly. If you aren't aware of this then just have a talk with the leadership of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and then with the leader of our liberal democrats, Mr Zhirinovsky. You will see the difference at once. If you cannot see it now, then have a talk with them. There is no problem here, simply go to Moscow and talk to them.

About our future plans. We would like to have a mature political system, a multi-party system with responsible politicians who can anticipate the country's development and not only work responsibly before elections and immediately after, but in a long-term future as well. That is what we aspire to. And this system will certainly be a multi-party one. All our actions within Russia, including changing the State Duma election regime, the election regime in the Russian parliament, are designed to strengthen a multi-party system in Russia.