13SEP

Pskov court jails Shlosberg for eleven years

1 min read

12:20UTC

A Pskov court sentenced Yabloko deputy chairman Lev Shlosberg to eleven years and one month on 17 August over his anti-war speech and posts. Russia did not invite election observers for a third consecutive national vote.

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Key takeaway

Shlosberg got eleven years for anti-war speech, and no observers will watch the September vote.

A Pskov court sentenced Lev Shlosberg, deputy chairman of Yabloko, to eleven years and one month on 17 August over his anti-war speech and posts. The Associated Press reported the term.

The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the election-observation arm of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, said on 6 August that Russia had not invited a mission and gave no substantive answer to its request for a needs assessment. That leaves a third consecutive national vote unobserved.

Nobody outside Russia's own institutions will produce an account of how the 18 to 20 September vote was run. Gerasimov claimed Donetsk captures in July that ISW said it could not corroborate, and the same verification gap now covers the ballot box. A vote nobody observes and a front nobody can verify hand the reader the same problem twice.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

A Russian court jailed a senior opposition politician for eleven years over anti-war comments. Separately, Europe's election-monitoring body says Russia never properly responded to its request to observe this month's parliamentary election, which will be the third national vote in a row that goes unwatched by outside observers.

Sources:Associated Press·OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights·OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights

Mentions:OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights →Russia →Donetsk →Associated Press →

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Update #27 · Russia's rate hold names the fuel shortage

Associated Press· 13 Sept 2026

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