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Eleven years in prison for illegal speech: reactions to the verdict against Russian opposition politician Lev Shlosberg

Source: Meduza

A Pskov court sentenced Lev Shlosberg, the 63-year-old deputy chairman of the liberal Yabloko party, to 11 years and one month in a penal colony on charges of repeatedly “discrediting” the Russian army and spreading “fake news” about the military. The formal pretexts for prosecuting him were his participation in debates and his repost of a Daily Mirror cover featuring Vladimir Putin. Shlosberg is one of the few Russian politicians who have publicly opposed the war in Ukraine while remaining in Russia. In his final statement, he spoke about the need to end the fighting between the two countries (though the judge kept interrupting him). Here’s how Shlosberg himself, his fellow party members, and other politicians and journalists reacted to the sentence.

Warning: This text contains adult language.

Lev Shlosberg

I sympathize with you, Your Honor: you’ll have to live with this decision. God will forgive [you].

Courtroom spectators

Nikolai Rybakov (chairman of Yabloko) and Grigory Yavlinsky (founder of Yabloko)

The threat of 11 years in a penal colony for saying that a ceasefire agreement was needed to save human lives, for criticizing the governor over his poor management of the Pskov region, for loving his homeland, and for not wanting to emigrate — this is the tragedy of Russian justice collapsing today.

Yabloko will use every lawful means to seek justice and a normal judicial process — an end to the prosecution of Lev Shlosberg.

Katerina Gordeeva, journalist

In the end, a prison sentence is just an abstract number. The people who dreamed up those numbers for Shlosberg lack what sets Lev Markovich apart: love, honor, a sense of duty. And most of all, they lack loving, unfailingly supportive people beside them. […] One day, the light will win.

Leonid Volkov, head of political projects at the Anti-Corruption Foundation, founded by Alexei Navalny

The absolutely nightmarish sentence handed down to Lev Shlosberg is all the more nightmarish for being entirely expected. And for the fact that in 2026 no one is surprised anymore that words carry far more prison time than murder, that it makes no difference to the regime what stripe of opposition figure you are, that any garbage can serve as “evidence” at trial. For the sake of all political prisoners, Putin’s regime must be destroyed as soon as possible.

Andrei Pivovarov, member of the Anti-War Committee

The question of power in Russia will be resolved long before Shlosberg’s sentence ends. God grant that Shlosberg lives to see that moment and holds out until then — he let not just Pskov but all of us breathe free air.

Alexander Kynev, political scientist

There’s no point in commenting on the ruling. Everyone understands perfectly well what’s going on. Dear Lev Markovich, with my deepest respect for you. I very much hope we’ll see each other again.

Roman Dobrokhotov, editor-in-chief of the investigative outlet The Insider

Fortunately, Shlosberg won’t actually have to serve anything like 11 years, because the poisonous toad won’t stay perched that long on the oil-and-gas pipe. But this is sad news, and it’s another signal to those who wanted to take a middle path: that path no longer exists and never will. This is a different regime, and it has to be fought with different methods.

Dmitry Kolezev, journalist

Fucking inhuman scum — what can you say.

Boris Nadezhdin, politician

They handed down [11 years] for words. Some murderers and rapists get less.

Yekaterina Duntsova, politician

I see this harsh sentence as an act of direct reprisal for his honesty, for the open stance he has held for years, and for his principled refusal to stay silent. Clearly, they are taking revenge on Lev Shlosberg for consistently remaining the voice of reason, for continuing to call things by their real names, and for speaking out for peace. […] Such a colossal sentence for words and beliefs reflects the full weight and darkness of what is happening.

Ksenia Fadeeva, former coordinator of Alexei Navalny’s campaign headquarters in Tomsk

A monstrous sentence. Eleven years for Shlosberg — a cultured man, not any kind of radical — for speaking out against the war. They tried him for show, disregarding not just the rules of criminal procedure but even the most basic rules of decency: rushing it through, giving him no time to prepare, and denying his lawyer the chance to review the case materials.

I often see comments along the lines of “He won’t serve that long; the regime will end before then.” […] When they jailed Navalny, it was also common to say, “Putin wrote that sentence for himself; Alexei will never actually serve 19 years.” Well, sure, he didn’t serve 19 years. But sadly, that wasn’t because the regime changed. And even if you’re not the tyrant’s number-one enemy, and no one has decided to kill you with poison right there in a solitary cell, Russian prisons can destroy the health of even a young, strong person.

Masha Slonim, journalist

All morning I’ve been wondering why we haven’t stopped being surprised. I mean myself, of course, but I’m sure I wasn’t the only one still clinging to a shred of hope: hope that Shlosberg wouldn’t be locked up for such a monstrous term, that the decision to strike Yabloko from the candidate list would be reversed.

No, I understand that this is starry-eyed idealism, naivete, idiocy.

But how can you live without it? And how I hate the thought of turning into a cynic, the way everyone around me — well, almost everyone — has.

Foolish old woman, I tell myself.

Yes, a foolish woman, anyone reading this will say.

But how endlessly sorry I feel for Shlosberg. And for the hope of democracy in Russia — a hope killed long ago. And for democracy, and for hope…

Dmitry Gudkov, member of the Anti-War Committee

Eleven years and one month (!). More than for murder, more than for gang rape with the threat of murder, more than for kidnapping, and more than for robbery. What can you say to that? That they’ve completely lost their f—ing minds over there? Well, that happened a long time ago. These thieves and murderers unleashed a full-scale war against Ukraine in which the number of dead and wounded passed a million long ago. And sooner or later there will be a reckoning for all of it. They don’t have 11 years left, and I wish Lev Shlosberg the strength to get through all of this.

Yury Dud, journalist and YouTuber

A Russian patriot, a pacifist, a brave and kind man who throughout the war called for it to be stopped immediately — they’ve sent him to a prison camp. […] To Lev Shlosberg and his family: patience and strength. If there is any source of light and strength to be found in this endless horror, it is in people like you.

Anton Dolin, film critic

In my eyes, Lev is a heroic figure. Atticus Finch. Juror No. 8 from 12 Angry Men. Any argument that the words he has spoken over the past few years were somehow “wrong” strikes me as empty and cheap. […]

Each time, it gets harder to find words even for the most outrageous cases, like this one. First of all, the harsher the language and the louder you shout, the less it registers — with you or with anyone else. There’s no use raising your voice.

Second, it is impossible to pretend that this — Shlosberg’s sentence, for instance — is rock bottom, that there is nowhere further to fall. Rock bottom came on February 24, 2022. The absolute floor; there is nothing below it. Everything since has been logical, predictable, and inevitable.