Russian Court Sentences Opposition Politician Lev Shlosberg to 11 Years

A court in the Russian city of Pskov has sentenced Lev Shlosberg, a senior figure in the opposition Yabloko party, to 11 years and one month in prison. The verdict, delivered on Monday, follows charges of discrediting the Russian military and spreading false information about it.

Shlosberg, 63, who served in the Pskov regional legislature from 2016 to 2021, was arrested in December 2025 and has been in pre-trial detention since. The charges relate to his public calls for an end to the war in Ukraine and a Telegram post sharing a British tabloid front page that juxtaposed an image of a bloodied woman with a photo of President Vladimir Putin.

The politician has rejected the charges as unfounded. This marks his second trial in two years; he had previously been convicted of violating Russia's foreign agent regulations, a designation that carries significant stigma and increased state scrutiny.

In a final statement to the court, Shlosberg reflected on Russia's trajectory over three decades, describing a shift from hopes for freedom to the near-total erosion of civil rights. He argued that the war has affected every Russian citizen and predicted that the country would be shaken once the full human cost of the conflict becomes apparent.

Yabloko, the only registered political party openly opposing the war, condemned the sentence as brutal and announced plans to appeal. Amnesty International also criticized the verdict, with regional director Marie Struthers calling it a reprisal for exercising freedom of expression and urging Russian authorities to release Shlosberg and repeal laws that criminalize peaceful anti-war speech.

The sentencing comes just weeks before Russia's next parliamentary election, part of a broader pattern of suppressing dissent since the invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.