Press Release, 29.10.2026

Photo: Lev Shlosberg / Photo by Pskov Yabloko

Today, 29 October, the Pskov Regional Court began hearing the appeals against the sentence of Lev Shlosberg, Deputy Chairman of Yabloko. It should be noted that the appeals were filed by three defence lawyers: Vladimir Danilov, Vera Kovalchuk and Leila Abdullayeva. In total, the defence cited more than 20 grounds for overturning the politician’s sentence.

Around 40 people came to the court to support Lev Shlosberg, including Nikolai Rybakov, Yabloko Chairman, and Olga Pokrovskaya, Chair of the party’s Arbitration Committee.

Lev Shlosberg took part in the hearing via video link.

During the hearing, he filed a motion to recuse the public prosecutor:

“She is a subordinate of the deputy public prosecutor who signed off on the opening of the criminal case on ‘fakes’ by an unauthorised person, an investigator from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. By law, only the Investigative Committee could have done this, and it had twice refused to open a case. Lawyer Leila Abdullayeva explained that the deputy public prosecutor’s decision was unlawful and showed his personal interest in the outcome of the case,” the Pskov Yabloko press service reported.

After a short break, the judicial panel rejected the motion.

Lawyers Leila Abdullayeva and Vera Kovalchuk then asked the court to adjourn the hearing for seven days, as they had not been properly notified of it and had therefore been unable to meet the politician at the pre-trial detention facility to agree on their position. Lev Shlosberg supported his lawyers’ motion and added that he had been unable to examine the audio record of the first-instance hearing in full, as the Pskov City Court had still not provided all of it.

The Judicial Panel for Criminal Cases of the Pskov Regional Court granted the defence’s motion. The hearing will resume on 6 November at 10:00.