Pskov Regional Court Upholds 11-Year Prison Sentence for Yabloko's Lev Shlosberg Over War Debates

The panel — Eduard Malikov, Kirill Valikov and Dmitry Ustinov — confirmed the ruling against the politician, Mediazona reported from the courtroom.

The Pskov City Court sentenced Shlosberg on 17 August to 11 years and one month in a penal colony. The case centered on his participation in debates about the war in Ukraine and a repost of an Ekho Moskvy publication featuring a Daily Mirror cover.

At the appeal, Shlosberg delivered his closing argument over two consecutive days. According to Mediazona, his speech lasted more than nine hours in total: 4 hours 15 minutes on the first day and another 5 hours on the second.

The politician and his lawyers asked the court to send the case back for review and to impose a measure of restraint not involving deprivation of liberty, Novaya Gazeta Europe reported.

Shlosberg devoted most of his remarks to violations he said were committed by the first-instance judge, Victoria Malyamova. According to the politician, the judge refused to admit defense documents and motions to the case file and scheduled hearings almost daily. The panel declined to postpone the closing arguments as Shlosberg and his lawyer Vladimir Danilov requested, giving the defense 70 minutes to prepare, Ekho reported, citing the Pskov branch of Yabloko.

Shlosberg said that in the military "fakes" case he was charged over a publication made before the article was added to the Criminal Code. The "discreditation" charge, he said, rests on words spoken not by him but by his opponent in the debates.

"In the absence of the ability to exercise the right to defense, a court becomes meaningless," the politician said in his closing argument, according to Novaya Gazeta Europe.

Shlosberg also said he cannot feel hatred toward the Russian army because he served in it himself. As a journalist, he investigated the deaths of paratroopers of the sixth company and helped the relatives of servicemen.

In his final word, the politician reflected on how to remain on the side of good. "Good is always man-made and becomes the result of human labor," he said.