Yabloko deputy chairman Lev Shlosberg sentenced to 11 years in penal colony

Pskov, Russia. Lev Shlosberg, deputy chairman of Russia’s liberal Yabloko party, was sentenced on Monday to 11 years and one month in a penal colony after being accused of discrediting Russia’s armed forces and spreading false information about them.

He had condemned the war in Ukraine as a catastrophe for Russia and repeated his call for an immediate ceasefire during his trial.

Closing statement

In a closing speech to the Pskov court last Friday, Shlosberg maintained his innocence and said he was the victim of a political trial.

He described the 4½-year war as having claimed countless lives and said the full death toll, including names, would eventually be made public.

“Today, cemeteries in our country, including military ones, are growing far more rapidly than maternity wards, kindergartens, and schools,” Shlosberg said, according to a transcript published by independent news outlet Mediazona.

Election ban

The verdict published by the court followed an August 10 decision by Russia’s Supreme Court to exclude Yabloko from participating in a parliamentary election next month. The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal against the ban.

Yabloko is the only registered political party to call for an end to the war. The party has faced pressure from authorities ahead of the election, in which a sizeable anti-war vote could have embarrassed the Kremlin.

Casualty estimates

Mediazona and the BBC Russian service have recorded the names of at least 239,354 Russian military personnel killed, based on publicly available records.

Using records of the estates of dead people to calculate excess mortality among Russian men, the outlets estimated that the actual death toll exceeds 350,000.