On Monday, a court in Pskov — a northwestern Russian city near the Estonian border — convicted Lev Shlosberg, deputy chairman of Yabloko, Russia’s only registered opposition party still openly opposing the war. He was sentenced to 11 years and one month, just short of the 12 years prosecutors had demanded. The verdict landed the same day Russia’s Supreme Court rejected Yabloko’s appeal against being barred from September’s parliamentary elections.
Shlosberg was convicted under wartime censorship laws — passed within days of Russia’s 2022 invasion — for “discrediting” the armed forces and spreading “false information” about them. The charges stemmed from his participation in an anti-war debate and a social media repost.
“For nothing more than taking part in an anti-war debate and sharing a social media post, Lev Shlosberg faces more than 11 years behind bars. His arbitrary prosecution and sentencing are blatant reprisals for exercising his right to freedom of expression to call for peace,” said Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Director.
A 63-year-old historian by training, Shlosberg has been a fixture of Pskov public life since the 1990s and a prominent critic of the Putin regime since the 2010s. His draconian sentence carries a personal edge, too: in 2014, he exposed the secret burials of Russian paratroopers killed in Donbas — at a time when the Kremlin was flatly denying any military involvement there. He was brutally attacked and hospitalized shortly after. Twelve years later, that unresolved anger appears to have found its outlet in a politically motivated conviction.
The sentence has drawn sharp condemnation from human rights organizations and Western governments, and protests from Russia’s remaining liberal opposition. The ASF believes the sentence must be quashed and calls for Shlosberg’s immediate release.