Russia: Yabloko politician jailed for eleven years
A court in the city of Pskov sentenced Lev Shlosberg - a politician from the opposition party Yabloko, which is calling for an end to the war in Ukraine - to eleven years and one month in prison on Monday. The charges were "discrediting the army" and "spreading disinformation”. On the same day, the Appeals Chamber of the Supreme Court upheld the decision to exclude Yabloko from the State Duma elections due to take place in mid-September.
State terror born of fear
Former Yabloko politician Maxim Reznik sees the court rulings against Yabloko and Schlosberg as a sign of the state's real weakness on Facebook:
“Today, the authorities have continued their campaign of terror against the Yabloko party. The Supreme Court upheld its exclusion from the Duma elections and Lev Schlosberg has been sentenced to eleven years' in prison. ... For a repost and for debates in which Shlosberg expressed his views on the war. ... Anyone with self-confidence would not sentence someone to eleven years for a repost, nor would they disqualify from an election someone they were seeking to portray as a minority. This is not the behaviour of someone who is in control of the situation, but of someone who is afraid. Afraid of a living person who says 'no'.”
Naive pacifism?
Film director Alexander Rodnyansky explains in a Telegram post republished by Echo why many Russian opposition figures in exile have been critical of Schlosberg and Yabloko:
“Schlosberg consistently prioritised an immediate ceasefire over the restoration of territorial justice: first we must stop the bloodshed, then we can negotiate, he would say. His formula for justice is radical pacifism, whereas the Ukrainian formula provides for the right of victims of aggression to armed self-defence. ... Schlosberg views the war as a humanitarian disaster that must be ended at any cost, while in Ukraine it is viewed as an act of aggression, the cessation of which – without security guarantees and the liberation of the occupied territories – would merely pave the way for the next war.”