A Russian court on Monday found a leading opposition politician guilty of publicly criticizing the war in Ukraine and sentenced him to 11 years and one month in prison, as authorities intensified pressure ahead of next month’s parliamentary election.

The conviction of Lev Shlosberg, a senior figure in the Yabloko party, represented another Kremlin effort to suppress dissent following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Yabloko is the only officially registered political party that openly opposes the war.

In a separate decision Monday, Russia’s Supreme Court upheld an earlier ruling excluding Yabloko from the Sept. 18-20 parliamentary election, rejecting the party’s appeal.

The actions targeting Shlosberg and Yabloko underscore the Kremlin’s unwillingness to tolerate criticism of the war, now entering its fifth year.

Shlosberg faced his second trial in two years

Shlosberg, 63, serves as Yabloko’s deputy chairman and was a member of the Pskov regional legislature from 2016 to 2021. He was tried in Pskov, about 600 kilometers (370 miles) northwest of Moscow, on accusations of “discrediting” the Russian armed forces and distributing “false information” about the military.

The case arose from a debate in which he urged an end to the conflict and from a post on his Telegram channel showing a British tabloid cover. It featured an injured woman beside Russian President Vladimir Putin and carried the words: “Her blood ... his hands.” Shlosberg dismissed the allegations as baseless.

The proceedings marked Shlosberg’s second trial within two years. Authorities have also classified him as a “foreign agent,” a stigmatizing designation in Russia that subjects individuals to heightened state oversight. He was previously convicted of breaching rules associated with that status.

In December 2025, Shlosberg was remanded in custody over the latest accusations and has remained imprisoned since then. He is among several notable Yabloko members who have recently been jailed or labeled “foreign agents” amid increasing government pressure on the party.

Yabloko described the punishment as ‘barbaric’

Delivering his closing remarks to the court Friday, Shlosberg said Russia had spent three decades moving “from hopes for freedom to the almost complete elimination of human and civil rights and liberties.”

He said the conflict in Ukraine had “altered the life of every Russian citizen without exception” and warned that when the real number of deaths is eventually revealed, “the whole country will tremble.”

Yabloko called the punishment a “barbaric sentence” imposed for “love of the Motherland and appeals for a ceasefire.” The party said in a Telegram statement that Shlosberg would challenge the verdict.

Amnesty International also condemned the court’s decision.

“His arbitrary prosecution and imprisonment are clear retaliation for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression and calling for peace,” said Marie Struthers, the organization’s director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Her statement urged Russian authorities to release Shlosberg immediately and without conditions and to overturn his conviction. It also called for the repeal of laws criminalizing peaceful anti-war speech, an end to the persecution of Yabloko members and supporters, and protection of Russians’ rights to expression, association, peaceful assembly and political participation.

Supreme Court confirms Yabloko’s removal from election ballot

In Moscow, the Supreme Court affirmed its decision from the previous week to exclude Yabloko from elections to the State Duma, the lower chamber of Russia’s parliament, and dismissed the party’s appeal.

Russia’s Central Election Commission had approved Yabloko in July to compete alongside 10 other parties. Since then, younger social media users and numerous exiled Russian opposition figures have rallied behind it and encouraged voters to offer their support. Yabloko was once an influential liberal presence in parliament but later lost its group of seats as the Kremlin strengthened its control over political life.

In recent years, Yabloko has remained the only registered opposition party to reject Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The party’s election messages included: “For a ceasefire agreement, diplomacy and peace!” “Our goal is to prevent nuclear war!” and “For a Russia without fear and political repression!”

Several pro-Kremlin parties publicly attacked Yabloko’s anti-war position after it secured a place on the ballot. The Motherland Party brought a case before the Supreme Court seeking Yabloko’s exclusion, alleging copyright violations and spending beyond legal campaign limits. It also argued that Yabloko’s position on Ukraine was illegal and amounted to advocating an attack on Russia’s territorial integrity.

Yabloko denied the claims, but the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Motherland Party.

While the court considered Yabloko’s appeal Monday, party supporters assembled outside the building. Russian news outlets reported that several dozen demonstrators were taken into custody.

Liberal politician Grigory Yavlinsky, who helped establish Yabloko in the 1990s and leads its political committee, criticized the ruling in an online statement. He said it reflected “a serious and worsening crisis within Russia’s political system, as well as an absence of any clear vision for the future.”

“People are beginning to sense this increasingly sharply, whatever their political opinions or affiliations,” he said, adding that Yabloko’s message “for peace and freedom” had touched this specific “painful point.”

Yabloko chairman Nikolai Rybakov told journalists after the judgment that the party would continue contesting the decision by appealing to the Presidium of the Supreme Court and potentially taking the matter to the Constitutional Court.

“We accomplished the most important goal: The entire world now understands how many people in Russia seek peace, want an ordinary life and hope to raise their children beneath peaceful skies in their own country,” Rybakov said.

Addressing Shlosberg’s prison sentence, Rybakov said that “our thoughts are with Lev and with other political prisoners who have struggled, and continue to struggle, for peace and for an end to the loss of life.”