Russia has sentenced Lev Shlosberg, the 63-year-old deputy chairman of the liberal Yabloko party – and one of the few prominent opponents of Russia’s war against Ukraine who chose to remain in the country – to 11 years and one month in a penal colony for participating in a debate and reposting a newspaper cover. On Aug. 17, a court in the northwestern city of Pskov found him guilty of repeatedly “discrediting” the Russian military and spreading “false information” about it. The court also prohibited him from administering websites for six years,Reuters reported.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. On the same day, Russia’s Supreme Court rejected Yabloko’s appeal against its exclusion from the Sept. 18-20 parliamentary election. Yabloko was the only registered Russian party openly campaigning for an end to the war. The two rulings removed both an anti-war party from the ballot and one of its best-known politicians from public life. Dozens of people who gathered near the Supreme Court were detained. Eleven years for a debate and a repost One part of the case concerned Shlosberg’s January 2025 online debate with historian Yuri Pivovarov. Shlosberg argued that Russia and Ukraine should agree to an immediate ceasefire. Pivovarov warned that a premature settlement could produce another war and supported Ukraine fighting until victory. Investigators claimed that a recording of the debate posted on the Russian social network Odnoklassniki “discredited” the military. Shlosberg said he did not control the account and had not uploaded the recording.
Who Is Lev Shlosberg, the Yabloko Politician Jailed for Opposing Russia’s War?
The Kremlin first came for Lev Shlosberg after his newspaper exposed the secret burials of Russian troops killed in Ukraine. Twelve years later, it has sentenced him to more than a decade in prison for refusing to stop talking about the war.
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