A court in the northwestern Pskov region has ordered opposition politician Lev Shlosberg to be returned to house arrest three days after initially releasing him, the Yabloko party’s press service said Friday.
Shlosberg, a senior Yabloko member who has remained in Russia despite his opposition to the war, faces up to five years in prison if found guilty of repeatedly “discrediting” the military. The 62-year-old politician was already fined twice on administrative charges for the same offense.
On Tuesday, the Pskov City Court ruled to impose a ban on certain activities instead of continuing Shlosberg’s house arrest, which he had been under since June. Yabloko said Shlosberg was barred from using the internet, a phone and communicating with anyone outside his household for four months.
However, on Friday, the party said the same court ordered him to be returned to house arrest following an appeal from prosecutors.
Authorities accuse Shlosberg of calling for a ceasefire in Ukraine during a January debate, a video of which was published on the Russian social media website Odnoklassniki.
Yabloko is one of Russia’s few legal opposition parties. It has consistently opposed the war in Ukraine and called for a ceasefire, though it has faced declining visibility and pressure under wartime censorship laws.
Shlosberg also faces a separate criminal case for allegedly failing to comply with Russia’s “foreign agent” law. Russia’s Justice Ministry labeled the opposition politician a “foreign agent” in June 2023.
Some exiled opposition figures have criticized Shlosberg for not taking a harder line against the war, which he has called a “tragedy” on social media.
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