Russian Politician Faces House Arrest After Calling Ukraine War ‘Bloody Chess’

A court in the western Russian city of Pskov said on Wednesday it had ruled that opposition politician Lev Shlosberg be placed under house arrest for two months and face unspecified restrictions on his activities at the request of state prosecutors.

Shlosberg was detained on Tuesday and charged with discrediting the Russian army after describing the war in Ukraine as a game of “bloody chess,” his party said. 

The 61-year-old made the comment in a video debate in January in which he urged an end to the war. The liberal Yabloko party, of which Shlosberg is a senior member, said his arrest was linked to those remarks. He denies the charge, it said. 

The court service of the Pskov region, which borders Estonia, on Wednesday published an image of Shlosberg at a court hearing standing up inside a courtroom cage. 

It noted that the authorities had already designated Shlosberg a “foreign agent,” a label which carries negative Soviet-era connotations and complicates designees’ lives. 

Nikolai Rybakov, the head of Yabloko, said Shlosberg was innocent and being persecuted unfairly for speaking out against the Kremlin’s actions. 

“Lev is not inciting violence, is not spreading lies, is not breaking the law,” Rybakov, who was in Pskov to support his colleague, said on Telegram. 

“He speaks of peace because he is convinced that the life of every human being has the highest value.” 

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Shlosberg, one of the relatively few opposition politicians remaining in the country, faces up to five years in jail if convicted.