Russia blocks anti-war Yabloko from ballot as deputy chair faces 11-year sentence
Russia’s Supreme Court upheld the removal of Yabloko from the September State Duma ballot, the country’s lone openly anti-war party, and a Pskov court sentenced Yabloko deputy chair Lev Shlosberg to 11 years in a penal colony for calling for a ceasefire and for “false information about the army.” The verdicts, viewed by critics as political repression, followed arrests of supporters outside the court, with Amnesty International condemning the outcome as retaliation against anti-war speech.