Lev Shlosberg jailed 11 years as Russia bars Yabloko before Duma poll

A Russian court sentenced opposition leader Lev Shlosberg to 11 years and one month for anti-war remarks. The verdict and Yabloko's exclusion from the Duma ballot sharpen concerns over shrinking political freedoms before the election.A Russian court on Monday convicted prominent opposition politician Lev Shlosberg for speaking out against the war in Ukraine and sentenced him to 11 years and one month in prison, in the latest clampdown ahead of next month’s parliamentary election.In a separate ruling, Russia’s Supreme Court upheld an earlier decision to remove the Yabloko party from the ballot for the September 18-20 vote to the State Duma, the lower house of parliament. Yabloko is the only officially registered political party that has openly opposed the war, which the report said is now in its fifth year.Shlosberg, 63, is Yabloko’s deputy chairman and served in the regional legislature of Pskov from 2016 to 2021. He was tried in Pskov on charges of “discrediting” and spreading “false information” about the Russian military. The charges were linked to a debate in which he called for an end to the war and to a post on his Telegram channel showing a British tabloid front page with an image of a bloodied woman next to one of President Vladimir Putin, under the headline: “Her blood ... his hands.” Shlosberg rejected the charges as unfounded.This was Shlosberg’s second trial in the past two years. He has also been designated a “foreign agent”, a label that carries strong pejorative connotations in Russia and brings additional government scrutiny. He was previously convicted of violating foreign agent regulations. In December 2025, he was placed in pretrial detention on the new charges and has remained behind bars since then. He is one of several prominent Yabloko members in recent years to have been jailed or labelled a “foreign agent” as pressure on the party has increased. In his final statement to the court on Friday, Shlosberg said that for 30 years, Russia had travelled “a path from hopes for freedom to the almost complete destruction of human and civil rights and freedoms.” He said the war in Ukraine had “changed the lives of every Russian citizen without exception” and predicted that once its true death toll becomes known, “the entire country will shudder.” Yabloko called the punishment a “barbaric sentence” for “love of the Motherland and calls for a ceasefire” and said he would appeal.Amnesty International also criticised the verdict. Marie Struthers, the group’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia director, said: “His arbitrary prosecution and sentencing are blatant reprisals for exercising his right to freedom of expression to call for peace.” She added: “The Russian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Lev Shlosberg and quash his conviction. They must repeal legislation criminalising peaceful anti-war expression, end the persecution of Yabloko members and supporters, and respect the rights to freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly and political participation for all Russians.” In Moscow, the Supreme Court rejected Yabloko’s appeal against its removal from the ballot. The Central Election Commission had in July approved Yabloko’s participation along with 10 other parties. Since then, young social media users and many Russian opposition figures in exile had backed the party and urged voters to support it. Its campaign slogans included, “For a ceasefire agreement, diplomacy and peace!”, “Our goal is to prevent nuclear war!” and “For a Russia free from fear and political repression!”After Yabloko was cleared to contest, several Kremlin-aligned parties publicly attacked it over its anti-war stand. The Motherland Party filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court seeking its removal, accusing Yabloko of copyright infringement and overspending in its campaign. It also argued that Yabloko’s position on Ukraine was unlawful and amounted to calling for a violation of Russia’s territorial integrity. Yabloko denied the accusations, but the Supreme Court sided with Motherland. As the court heard the appeal on Monday, Yabloko supporters gathered outside and Russian media reported that several dozen people were detained.Liberal politician Grigory Yavlinsky, who co-founded Yabloko in the 1990s and now chairs its political committee, said the ruling marked “a serious, deepening crisis in the Russian political system and a lack of understanding of a desired future”. He said, “People begin to feel this more acutely, regardless of their political views and positions,” and added that Yabloko’s campaign “for peace and freedom” had touched that “sore point.” Party chairman Nikolai Rybakov said Yabloko would continue its legal fight by approaching the Presidium of the Supreme Court and possibly the Constitutional Court, “so that the citizens of our country have a peaceful, lawful and safe way of voting for peace, freedom and life without fear in Russia.” On Shlosberg’s sentence, Rybakov said that “our feelings are with Lev and other political prisoners who have fought and are fighting for peace, for people to not die.”Monday’s rulings against Shlosberg and Yabloko underlined the pressure on anti-war voices in Russia, with the opposition leader facing a long prison term and his party kept out of next month’s parliamentary election.With PTI Inputs- EndsPublished By: India Today Web Desk Published On: Aug 17, 2026 22:14 IST