Russian Court Sentences Yabloko Party Official to 11 Years in Prison

Lev Shlosberg, the vice president and deputy chairman of the Russian anti war party Yabloko, was sentenced Monday to 11 years and one month in prison. The conviction follows charges of spreading false information and discrediting the Russian military due to remarks criticizing the offensive in Ukraine launched in February 2022. Shlosberg, 63, had previously served in the regional legislature of Pskov from 2016 to 2021 and has been designated a foreign agent by the Russian government.

The charges were based on a debate where Shlosberg called for an end to the war and a Telegram post featuring a British tabloid image of President Vladimir Putin. Shlosberg has rejected the charges as unfounded. In his final statement, he described Russia's trajectory as a move toward the destruction of civil rights and predicted the country would shudder once the true death toll of the war is known. Yabloko called the sentence barbaric and stated that they intend to appeal. Amnesty International also denounced the verdict, calling it a reprisal for exercising freedom of expression.

In a separate ruling on Monday, Russia's Supreme Court upheld a decision to bar Yabloko from the ballot in the upcoming parliamentary elections. Yabloko is noted as the only official political party overtly opposing the war. While a center outlet reported the sentencing as a conviction of an anti war party vice president, a center left outlet framed the event as part of a broader Kremlin crackdown to stifle dissent and remove opposition voices ahead of the elections.