Moscow metro is set to auction off more than a hundred of its iconic blue carriages after updating its rolling stock, a spokesman told Agence France Presse on Thursday.

The 120 carriages will be sold in lots of three and the state-owned system hopes to raise a total of almost 8 million rubles ($255,221), said metro spokesman Alexei Manakov.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Russian rights activists Wednesday as he faced a tough balancing act between trying to find common ground with the Kremlin on Syria and signaling support for the country's embattled civil society.

On his first visit to Russia as the top U.S. diplomat, Kerry conspicuously steered clear of criticizing Moscow in an apparent attempt to soothe months of tensions after President Vladimir Putin's return to the Kremlin for a new term last May.

At least 38 people died in a fire in a psychiatric hospital outside Moscow late Thursday night.

Police said the fire, which broke out at about 2 a.m. local time (6 p.m. Eastern, 2200 GMT) in the one-story hospital in the Ramenskoye settlement, was caused by a short circuit, the RIA Novosti reported on Friday.

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.