Russia Jails Kremlin Critic Shlosberg for 11 Years
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- Lev Shlosberg, 63, deputy chairman of the Yabloko party, was sentenced to 11 years and one month by a court in Pskov, about 600 kilometers northwest of Moscow, on charges of "discrediting" and spreading "false information" about the Russian military.
- The charges stemmed from a debate in which Shlosberg called for ending the war and a Telegram post featuring a British tabloid front page showing a bloodied woman beside Vladimir Putin with the headline "Her blood ... his hands."
- The prosecution is Shlosberg's second trial in two years; he has also been designated a "foreign agent" and has been held in pre-trial detention since December 2025, when the new charges were filed.
- The Yabloko party, the only official Russian political party overtly opposing the war, called the sentence "brutal" for "love of the Motherland and calls for a ceasefire" and said Shlosberg will appeal; Shlosberg himself rejected the charges as unfounded.
- In his final court statement on Friday, Shlosberg said Russia has traveled over 30 years "from hopes for freedom to the almost complete destruction of human and civil rights and freedoms," and predicted that once the war's true death toll becomes known, "the entire country will shudder."
- Amnesty International's Eastern Europe and Central Asia director Marie Struthers called the prosecution "arbitrary" reprisal for exercising free expression and demanded Shlosberg's immediate release and the repeal of laws criminalizing anti-war speech.
- The verdict comes weeks before Russia's parliamentary elections next month, the latest move in the Kremlin's crackdown on dissent since the February 2022 invasion.
Why it matters: A 63-year-old opposition lawmaker from Russia's only anti-war registered party now faces 11 years behind bars for reposting a British tabloid front page and calling for a ceasefire — his second prosecution in two years. Coming weeks before parliamentary elections, the verdict extends a crackdown documented by his foreign-agent designation and prior trial.
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