Russian court jails Kremlin opposition politician for opposing war in Ukraine

A Russian court has sentenced Lev Shlosberg, deputy chair of the Yabloko party, to 11 years and one month in prison for speaking out against the war in Ukraine. According to Meduza, Shlosberg was convicted of "discrediting" the Russian military and spreading "false information" about the Armed Forces. The charges stemmed from a debate in which he called for an end to the war and from a post on his Telegram channel that reproduced a British tabloid front page critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The sentence was handed down by Judge Viktoria Malyamova of the Pskov City Court, who took into account an earlier punishment: in November 2025, Shlosberg was sentenced to 420 hours of community service for failing to meet the obligations of a "foreign agent". The prosecutor had asked for 12 years and one month in prison. Yabloko is the only official political party overtly opposing the war, and the verdict against Shlosberg is seen as another step by the Kremlin to stifle dissent.

The Yabloko party has been barred from the ballot in the upcoming parliamentary election, with Russia's Supreme Court upholding an earlier decision to deny the party's appeal. The moves against Shlosberg and Yabloko highlight the Kremlin's intolerance towards any criticism of the war.

Brief written by urgent.news from PBS NewsHour, Meduza (English), Kyiv Independent, South China Morning Post — 4 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.