A Russian court sentenced opposition politician Lev Shlosberg to 11 years and one month in a penal colony on Monday, the latest and most severe example yet of the Kremlin's crackdown on anti-war dissent ahead of next month's parliamentary election.

Shlosberg, 63, deputy chairman of the liberal Yabloko party, was convicted of "discrediting" the Russian armed forces and spreading "false information" about the war in Ukraine — charges built around a Telegram post and public remarks calling for the fighting to end. According to PBS NewsHour, prosecutors cited a British tabloid front page he reposted showing a bloodied woman beside President Vladimir Putin, captioned "Her blood ... his hands," along with comments he made during a public debate arguing for peace.

It was Shlosberg's second criminal trial in two years. He has been held in pretrial detention since December 2025 and was designated a "foreign agent" by the Russian government, a label that subjects him to additional monitoring and restrictions. He has maintained throughout that the charges are baseless and politically motivated. Rights monitor Memorial has designated him a political prisoner.

"THE WHOLE WORLD KNOWS HOW MANY PEOPLE IN RUSSIA WANT PEACE."

A Party Already Locked Out

The sentencing came the same day Russia's Supreme Court upheld a separate ruling barring Yabloko — the only officially registered Russian party still openly opposing the war — from appearing on the ballot in the September 18–20 parliamentary elections, denying the party's appeal of a challenge brought by the Kremlin-aligned Motherland party, according to independent outlet Meduza. Yabloko chairman Nikolai Rybakov called Shlosberg's sentence "barbaric" and said it would not silence the party's opposition to the war.

Amnesty International condemned the ruling as "blatant reprisals for exercising his right to freedom of expression," and rights groups say the sentence — among the longest handed to a sitting or recently active opposition figure since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022 — signals the Kremlin's determination to clear the field of organized anti-war voices before voters go to the polls. Shlosberg represented the Pskov region for years and built a national profile investigating Russian military casualties early in the war, reporting that drew fierce retaliation from state media.

Russian authorities have jailed dozens of activists, journalists and local officials under the "discrediting the army" and "false information" statutes since they were enacted in the war's opening weeks, with sentences escalating sharply over the past two years. Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny died in an Arctic penal colony in February 2024 after being handed a series of additional charges that extended his sentence by nearly two decades.

Shlosberg's legal team said it plans to appeal, though rights groups hold little hope the sentence will be reduced given the pattern in similar recent cases. He is expected to be transferred to a penal colony to begin serving his term once the appeal process concludes.