Press Release, 9.11.2026

Photo: Lev Shlosberg at the hearing on 6 November via video link / Photo by Pskov Yabloko

On Friday, 6 November, the Pskov Regional Court continued hearing the appeals filed by Lev Shlosberg and his lawyers against the sentence in the consolidated criminal case.

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. The case is being heard by the Judicial Panel for Criminal Cases.

Alexander Shishlov, Coordinator of Yabloko’s Federal Political Committee, and Yegor Karpenkov, Deputy Chairman of St. Petersburg Yabloko, came from St. Petersburg to support Lev Shlosberg.

At the start of the hearing, Lev Shlosberg asked the court to allow him to attend in person rather than via video link if the hearing continued on other days.

He then filed a motion to adjourn the hearing so that he could examine the full audio record.

Lev Shlosberg said that some of the audio files from the first-instance hearing had been provided to him in a format that could not be played in the pre-trial detention facility.

He believes that the passages missing from the record are precisely those in which the trial judge, who heard the case at first instance and sentenced him to 11 years and 1 month in a general regime penal colony, undermined his right to defence: “There were dozens of such instances,” the politician said.

The court rejected the motion and moved on to consider the appeals on their merits.

After almost six hours, the court adjourned the hearing. It will resume on 10 November at 10:30.