Watchdog

MOSCOW -- Russia's Supreme Court has upheld the 14-year prison term of a Polish citizen found guilty of espionage.

The court's ruled on September 12 that the sentence against Marian Radzajewski was "legal and justified," the Federal Security Service (FSB) said on September 16.

The Moscow City Court in June found Radzajewski guilty of trying to obtain military information that included state secrets.

The trial was held behind closed doors, as the case materials were considered classified.

Radzajewski was detained in April 2018. Investigators said he was trying to reach a deal on the illegal purchase of parts for a S-300 missile system, which he planned to transport to Poland.

Radzajewski has denied any wrongdoing.

MOSCOW -- Russian actor Pavel Ustinov has been sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison for violence against police during a protest rally last month he insists he did not participate in.

The Tver district court in Moscow on September 16 found Ustinov guilty of verbally insulting police and assaulting a National Guard officer during the August 3 rally.

The demonstrators were protesting against the refusal by officials to register opposition and independent candidates for Moscow city-council elections that took place on September 8.

Ustinov pleaded not guilty. He has said that he did participate in the rally but just stood nearby.

Defense witnesses have confirmed that he neither insulted anyone nor resisted police, but was beaten up by law enforcement.

Judge Sergei Krivoruchko ruled that videos from the rallies, which the defense had wanted to present in the case, were not admissible.

The August 3 rally was part of a wave of demonstrations that brought tens of thousands of Russians onto the streets of Moscow.

Police violently dispersed several of the protests and more than 2,000 people were detained, drawing international condemnation.

A number of those detained have received jail sentences.