Lev Shlosberg

A resident of Pskov, journalist, politician, Deputy Chair of the Yabloko party, and head of the party’s regional branch in the Pskov region from 1996 to 2023.

Politician Lev Shlosberg is facing two criminal cases: under Part 2 of Article 330.1 of the Russian Criminal Code (evasion of duties of a 'foreign agent') and Part 1 of Article 280.3 (discrediting the army). In the first case, the prosecutor requested 440 hours of compulsory work; the second case is related to calls for a ceasefire in Ukraine. Shlosberg denies any wrongdoing, and his defense points to the lack of concrete evidence and the absence of a criminal offense in the charges brought.

2020s

Cases concerning the discreditation of the Russian Armed Forces Evasion of duties of a foreign agent Journalists Politics

Reading time: 25 minutes.

The final statement

‘I am not a foreign agent. I am a citizen of Russia.’

This, without a doubt, is not my final word, Your Honor.

Over the course of seventeen court sessions, my defenders, Vitaly Isakov and Vladimir Danilov, and I have presented the court with exhaustive evidence of my innocence, showing that my actions contain no elements of a crime. This trial will enter the history of Russian law as an example of flawless defense work in a situation where almost no one believes in the very possibility of defending human rights and freedoms in our country. Yet, we believe.

Today, I will speak about the most important thing—politics.

What has happened in our country that, in the first quarter of the 21st century, political repression, politically motivated criminal cases, and political verdicts became possible? What is happening to people, to the state, to the authorities, to society, to law? What future awaits a country where practically no one believes in fair investigations and just courts?

Thirty-two years ago, in Russia, amid catastrophic socio-economic reforms that affected millions of people and the effective onset of a civil war, through despair, hatred, tears, and blood, the Constitution was adopted, whose Article 18 states: ‘Human and civil rights and freedoms are directly applicable. They determine the meaning, content, and application of laws, the activity of legislative and executive authorities, local self-government, and are ensured by justice.‘

Today, our country is a step away from recognizing such a statement as extremist. The very phrase ‘human and civil rights and freedoms‘ is becoming semi-underground, almost secret, nearly forbidden. Speaking about human rights and freedoms, and even more so fighting for them, has become dangerous—sometimes fatally so.

Today, there are thousands of political prisoners in the country—people persecuted by the state and convicted for non-violent actions: for thoughts, words, public disagreement with the authorities, for maintaining human dignity, for reminding the state of the need for humanity, compassion, and humanitarianism, for demanding peace.

Human rights work—an integral part of civil society—is brutally persecuted. From the status of human rights defender to political prisoner, today in our country, it is only half a step.

Meanwhile, the words LAW and FREEDOM, FREEDOM and LAW are the foundation of a just state. Today, a third word has been added to these two—PEACE. Until freedom, law, and peace come to our country, the future will not return—a future in which people do not fear the state, do not fear for the lives of their children, do not fear for their own lives.

In just a few years, dozens of laws denying human rights and freedoms, essentially denying the very concept of law, have been unanimously passed by parliament. Thousands of government, including judicial, decisions cite numerous legal norms yet are devoid of law. The foundation of law—human rights and freedoms—has been ripped from Russian legislation.

The federal law ‘On the Control of Activities of Persons under Foreign Influence‘, presented to society as a law protecting state sovereignty, has become one of these anti-legal laws. It has already had and continues to have a destructive effect on legislative and executive bodies, law enforcement and judicial systems, public relations, public policy, and culture.

Adding people to the so-called ‘register of foreign agents’ occurs secretly, extra-judicially, excluding the possibility for a person to defend their rights. The law on foreign influence has become an instrument of extra-judicial persecution of people who appear inconvenient to someone in power.

To add any person to this register requires only a political order—and the law, in its current form, allows those in power to strike anyone in the back and confront them with the fact: now you are a foreign agent, an enemy of the people. Try living with that.

In essence, the law on foreign influence has become an instrument of state annulment of citizens—expelling them from political, social, and economic life, a tool for total state interference in private life. It is a sign of a deep pathology in the Russian legal system, threatening its collapse.

This law appeared at a moment when the state decided to abandon equal political dialogue with citizens, when legal principles of political struggle were replaced by political violence, when the rule of law was supplanted by the law of force. And many things became possible that, in 1993, at the adoption of the long-suffering Constitution, no one could have imagined.

‘The Russian Federation recognizes ideological diversity. No ideology may be established as state or mandatory. Political diversity and multi-party system are recognized in the Russian Federation.‘—Article 13 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

‘The basic rights and freedoms of man are inalienable and belong to everyone from birth.‘—Article 17

‘All are equal before the law and the courts.‘—Article 19

‘Human dignity is protected by the state. Nothing may serve as a basis for its diminution.‘—Article 21

‘Everyone has the right to freedom and personal inviolability.‘—Article 22

‘Everyone has the right to privacy, personal and family secrets, protection of one’s honor and reputation.‘—Article 23

‘Collection, storage, use, and dissemination of information about a person’s private life without consent is not permitted.‘—Article 24

‘Everyone is guaranteed freedom of conscience and religion, including the right to profess any religion individually or with others or not to profess any, to freely choose, possess, and disseminate beliefs and act in accordance with them.‘—Article 28

‘Everyone is guaranteed freedom of thought and expression. No one may be compelled to express or renounce opinions or beliefs. Everyone has the right to seek, receive, transmit, produce, and distribute information by any lawful means. Freedom of mass media is guaranteed. Censorship is prohibited.‘—Article 29

‘Citizens of the Russian Federation have the right to assemble peacefully, without weapons, to hold meetings, rallies, demonstrations, processions, and picketing.‘—
Article 31

‘Everyone has the right to freely use their abilities and property for entrepreneurial and other lawful activities.‘—Article 34

‘The right to private property is protected by law.‘—Article 35

‘Everyone has the right to freely dispose of their labor and choose their profession.‘—Article 37

The state prosecution, under a false understanding of the state’s interests, believes that by accusing me of an invented crime, it is protecting public interest, social justice, and the law.

This is entirely false. On the contrary, my defenders and I in this trial are defending the constitutional foundations of the Russian state, human rights and freedoms—not just mine. The state prosecution publicly destroys these constitutional foundations.

Every Russian citizen has the right to vote and be elected—to participate in politics and elections, to vote for politicians of their convictions. Every citizen has the right to write and read books—those we wish to write and read. To sing and listen to songs—those we wish to sing and hear, and wherever we wish to do so peacefully. To make and watch films—those we wish to make and watch. This is personal freedom—the foundation of all freedoms. Any attack on these rights and freedoms is an attack on the constitutional foundations of the Russian state.

I am not a foreign agent. I am a citizen of Russia, whose ideas about the state, power, politics, human dignity, and honor differ significantly from those of many politicians in power today. My party, the Russian United Democratic Party Yabloko, shares visions of public values distinct from much of Russia’s ruling class, foremost the value of human life and the absolute priority of human rights and freedoms.

This right to publicly dissent from authorities is guaranteed to me and my colleagues by the Constitution of Russia. Any attempt to question or restrict this right is an assault on the constitutional foundations of the Russian state.

Why did the Ministry of Justice put me in the so-called ‘register of foreign agents’? Because, according to its officials, I ‘disseminated false information about decisions made by public authorities of the Russian Federation and the policies they pursue.‘Not a single court ruling confirms this claim. Yet, under the law on foreign influence, the Ministry of Justice is exempt from judicial proof. The refusal of judicial procedure to limit human rights and freedoms is a refusal of the constitutional foundations of the Russian state.

The law lists ten sources of foreign influence for extra-judicial registration. Everything imaginable: foreign states; foreign state authorities; international and foreign organizations; foreign citizens; stateless persons; unregistered foreign structures; individuals authorized by the above; Russian citizens and legal entities receiving money or property from the above (with a notable exception—state-owned companies). None of these applied to me or hundreds of others.

Yet, the tenth item was used: individuals under the influence of any of the above. Translated from legalistic Russian to plain Russian: I did not refuse public communication with people who, according to the Ministry of Justice, were already listed as foreign agents—including people who have entered world history, whose books will be read for generations of Russian-speaking readers.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov told me then: ‘Lev Markovich, you are patient zero. Now foreign agent status will spread by airborne droplets and handshakes.’

Thus, the Ministry of Justice, with an unjust law as its club, transforms into a Ministry of Injustice.

The indictment states that there are no victims in this case. I disagree. There are victims: me, my family, my colleagues, our political party, Russian civil society. And not only that. The Russian state, as it ought to be according to the Constitution, is also a victim, because this case undermines the foundations of Russia’s constitutional order.

Imagine something terrible but possible: the death penalty returns to Russia. Is the prosecution ready to demand death sentences for political offenses? Yes. Is the judiciary ready to impose them? Yes.

Does anyone in the prosecution, investigative bodies, special services, or courts consider this possible? Yes, but they remain silent—out of fear.

How can this happen? Unfortunately, very easily—with youthful zeal, certainty in the infallibility of authorities, and the belief that ‘if someone was jailed or shot, they must have deserved it.’

Why has it happened? Because law, as the foundation of the state, has been destroyed. No one is protected from reprisals.

Today in Russia is the Day of Remembrance for Victims of Political Repression. Its origins trace back to 30 October 1974, when, on the initiative of dissidents Kronid Lyubarsky, Alexey Murzhenko, and others, the first Day of the Political Prisoner was observed with a hunger strike and the presentation of humanitarian and political demands.

On the same day, Sergei Kovalyov held a press conference at Andrei Sakharov’s apartment in Moscow, announcing the action, showing camp documents, featuring statements from Moscow dissidents, and presenting the 32nd issue of the underground human rights bulletin Chronicle of Current Events. Months later, organizing this conference became one of the charges against Kovalyov himself.

The legislation on ‘enemies of the people’—as is the foreign agent legislation—casts a dark shadow of 20th-century political repression. The first quarter of the 21st century tragically rhymes with the darkest pages of our history.

In present-day Pskov Oblast alone, over 64,000 were repressed, 8,205 executed. Only 45,498 were later rehabilitated. Among those executed were local officials, prosecutors, and ordinary citizens—all posthumously found innocent after Stalin’s death.

I represent a political force in Russia—the Russian United Democratic Party Yabloko—which opposes the dehumanization of people, the rise of hatred, the hardening of the state, political repression, lawlessness, and injustice.

For this, I and many others were added to the so-called ‘register of foreign agents’—to prevent us from living and working in Russia, from engaging in civilized politics, from protecting human rights, from defending life, from fighting for a free and peaceful future. I will not leave my country.

I was born in Pskov in 1963 into a family of teachers, and I live here still. My parents, Bronislava Evseevna and Mark Naumovich, were also born in Pskov. My father is 96; we live together. My wife Zhanna is a cardiologist. I graduated from high school No. 8 in 1980 and later from the History Faculty of Pskov State Pedagogical Institute, defended a thesis on Pskov’s fortifications in the 17th–18th centuries, which remains in academic circulation.

I have worked as a teacher, social worker, university founder, and editor. My journalism has earned national awards, and I have repeatedly been elected deputy of the Pskov Regional Assembly. Since 1994, I have been a member of Yabloko, serving as regional chair and, since 2023, deputy chair.

I live in Russia. I am a citizen and patriot of a peaceful and free Russia. I have no foreign citizenship, receive no foreign funding, and represent only Russian citizens, including residents of Pskov Oblast. I respect the Constitution, human and civil rights and freedoms.

I am not a foreign agent. I am a Russian politician whose work is dedicated to protecting people, life, freedom, and peace. I am trained and experienced in this work. I continue this work despite circumstances.

Whether the politics of freedom and peace becomes the expression of the hopes of the majority and of Russian policy affects the lives of all people in our country—left and right, rich and poor, young and old. Freedom and peace are essential to life. Through my political work, I bring freedom and peace closer.

The criminal case against me exists only to stop me from doing this work. I will not stop.

This work is absolutely principled. The Russian United Democratic Party Yabloko is the only party in the country calling for an immediate ceasefire agreement between Russia and Ukraine, preserving the lives of every person affected by the largest tragedy since World War II. Every day, people die. We do everything possible to save lives and protect a peaceful future for every person and for the whole country.

The fight for human rights in Russia today is also a fight to halt a deadly machine that, in the 20th century, mercilessly took millions of lives, creating victims in the tens of millions, depriving a country of law, justice, and joy of life.

I see my personal civic duty in this work. It has the highest purpose.

I have committed no crimes. I call upon the court, Your Honor, to stand on the side of law in this criminal case, on the foundations of Russia’s constitutional order, and to acquit me.

Respectfully.

30 October 2025.

Justice of the Peace Court No. 38, Pskov, Russia.

Source: Yabloko

More information: Memorial PZK

Photo: Pskov News Ribbon.