Kremlin critic jailed in Russia for 11 years for opposing the war in Ukraine

A Russian court on Monday convicted a prominent opposition politician for speaking out against the war in Ukraine and sentenced him to 11 years and one month in prison in the latest crackdown leading up to next month’s parliamentary election.

The verdict against Lev Shlosberg, a senior member of the Yabloko party, was another step by the Kremlin to stifle dissent since Russia invaded its neighbour in February 2022. Yabloko is the only official political party overtly opposing the war.

In a separate ruling on Monday, Russia’s Supreme Court upheld its earlier decision to bar Yabloko from the ballot in the September 18-20 parliamentary vote, denying an appeal by the party.

The moves against Shlosberg and Yabloko highlight the Kremlin’s intolerance towards any criticism of the war, now in its fifth year.

Shlosberg, 63, is Yabloko’s deputy chairman and served in the regional legislature of Pskov from 2016 to 2021. He stood trial in the city of Pskov, some 600km (370 miles) northwest of Moscow, on charges of “discrediting” and spreading “false information” about the Russian military.

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The charges stemmed from a debate in which he called for ending the war and from posting on his Telegram channel a British tabloid front page featuring an image of a bloodied woman next to one of Russian President Vladimir Putin, with the headline: “Her blood … his hands.” Shlosberg has rejected the charges as unfounded.