Press Release, 11.02.2026

Photo: Lev Shlosberg at the Pskov Regional Court hearing on 11 February 2026 / Photo by Pskov Yabloko

On 11 February, the Pskov Regional Court considered an appeal against the detention of Yabloko Deputy Chairman Lev Shlosberg. The appeal was rejected, and the judge ruled that Shlosberg must remain in remand prison until 2 April. The politician speaking in court declared that the date of the alleged “crime” had been falsified in the case materials – investigators may have changed it to create a chronology convenient for the prosecution so that the action (taking place in February 2022) would fall under provisions of a law on “fakes about the army” adopted later (in March 2022).

On 30 January, the Pskov City Court extended Lev Shlosberg’s detention until 2 April in the case concerning “fakes”. The appeal hearing against this decision took place on 11 February, with Shlosberg attending via video link from the remand prison.

In his statement, the Shlosberg drew the court’s attention to the fact that the date of the alleged “crime” in the case materials had been falsified, yet the court of first instance had completely ignored this. The law which introduced criminal liability for public dissemination of knowingly false information about the use of the Russian Armed Forces (that is, the “law on fakes about the army”, Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) came into force on 4 March 2022. In the materials of Lev Shlosberg’s case, this date of 25 February had been replaced by 4 March by the investigation, the politician and his defence team are convinced.

“The date [of the alleged ‘crime’ in the case materials] is given as 25 February, then eight days later the investigator writes – 4 March. This is direct proof that the investigation understands: one cannot hold a person accountable for something that was not a crime at the time it was committed. So they rewrote the date. This is inconceivable,” Lev Shlosberg told the court.

In his statement, Shlosberg also said that he was requesting that his measure of restraint be changed to house arrest, and that he was proceeding from his complete innocence. Lev Shlosberg emphasised that during more than two months in detention, not a single investigative action had been carried out with him, and according to the Criminal Procedure Code, the investigation had no arguments whatsoever in favour of keeping the politician in a remand prison.

Lev Shlosberg also said that the court of first instance had completely ignored information about his personal circumstances and his family situation, including the fact that he cared for his 96-year-old father.

“We are very attached to each other, we have a very close family. During house arrest I had the opportunity to communicate with my father.”

He also reminded the court that he was a public politician and had repeatedly stated that he did not intend to leave Russia:

“My status as Deputy Chairman of the Yabloko party places significant moral obligations on me, in particular to live and work in my own country.”

Lawyer Vladimir Danilov, speaking in court, noted that Shlosberg had not violated the house arrest imposed on him under the second criminal case. This meant that in the combined case, the measure of restraint should be relaxed, not tightened. He also reminded the court that the third case, which fell within the jurisdiction of the Investigative Committee, had been initiated by an investigator from the Ministry of Internal Affairs who was not authorised to do so.

However, the public prosecutor asked the court to reject the appeal, as the “crime” was a serious one, and Lev Shlosberg “had been entered in the register of foreign agents, had connections abroad, and was under the influence of foreign sources”.

The court agreed with the prosecution. The appeal against the detention was rejected, and the judge ruled that Lev Shlosberg must remain in remand prison until 2 April.

It should be noted that Lev Shlosberg has been in remand prison since 5 December 2025. He is accused of disseminating “fakes about the army” because of a repost on his Telegram channel made in February 2022. This is chronologically the third case brought against Lev Shlosberg. It appeared on the eve of the expiry of six months of his house arrest under the second case, concerning “repeated discreditation of the army” . The investigation into the second case was never completed, and the cases have been combined into a single proceeding.

Furthermore, Lev Shlosberg is currently appealing the verdict in the so-called “missing foreign agent labels” case – for keeping on his social media page five videos, made by other people, without his “foreign agent label” which was impossible to do in this social media even from a technical point of view. The court previously sentenced Shlosberg to 420 hours of community service. The defence found out that the verdict was made with 99 violations of the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code.