Russian court upholds 11-year prison sentence for opposition politician Lev Shlosberg

The Pskov Regional Court in Russia has upheld the sentence given to opposition politician Lev Shlosberg, deputy chair of the liberal Yabloko party. He received 11 years and one month in prison on a repeat charge of "discrediting" the Russian army and spreading "false information" about the military. The independent outlet Mediazona reported the appeal outcome.

A court sentenced Shlosberg in August to 11 years and one month in a penal colony. The appeal has now been heard, and the original decision was left unchanged.

The appeal hearing

Closing arguments in the appeal lasted two days. Shlosberg, who is held in a pretrial detention center, spoke on both days, for nine hours in total. He spent most of that time on what he described as numerous violations by the judge who sentenced him.

In his final statement, he spoke about the purpose of a person's life and the conscious choice between good and evil. He said that many people take part in the fate of every person subjected to repression, and that repression would be impossible without them. Each of them, he said, chooses whether to remain human. In his view, remaining human requires no heroic feats: it is enough not to do evil and not to take part in it. He ended with the words "Remain human."

Background of the case

The "discrediting" case stems from a recording posted on the social network Odnoklassniki of a debate in which Shlosberg argued that Russia's war against Ukraine should end as soon as possible.

The "false information" case was opened over a repost on his Telegram channel of an Echo of Moscow post showing the front page of the British newspaper Daily Mirror. The page featured a bloodied woman and Vladimir Putin, with the words "Her blood… his hands." Shlosberg said the material had been reposted before Russia passed its law against spreading "false information" about the army.