A Russian judge has handed down a seven-year prison sentence to the deputy leader of the Yabloko opposition party for his critical commentary on the war in Ukraine. Maxim Kruglov, a former Moscow city councillor, was detained last October following accusations of spreading misinformation about the military.
The legal case involved two social media posts written in April 2022. In these messages, Kruglov spoke out against civilian fatalities and questioned the Russian army’s conduct in the Ukrainian town of Bucha. The Zamoskvoretsky Court in Moscow ordered that he serve his seven-year term within a general-regime penal colony. While the state-run RIA news agency confirmed the sentence, the independent outlet Mediazona noted that Kruglov maintains his innocence, arguing his statements were merely calls for official investigations.
At 39, Kruglov joins other prominent Yabloko figures facing state pressure. Party officials such as Lev Shlosberg and Nikolai Rybakov have recently dealt with house arrest or fines, the latter occurring after Rybakov posted an image of the late opposition figure Alexei Navalny. Given the Russian government’s designation of Navalny as an extremist, referencing him often carries legal risks.
Once a major force in the 1990s and early 2000s, Yabloko has been excluded from the State Duma since 2007. The party asserts that systemic bureaucratic hurdles consistently block its candidates from standing for election. This sentencing reflects a broader campaign by Moscow to silence dissent since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, utilizing severe judicial penalties to suppress criticism of the military conflict.
