Maxim Kruglov, former deputy leader of Russia’s liberal Yabloko party, was sentenced to seven years in prison on June 24 for spreading “false information” about the Russian military through two Telegram posts made in 2022. He told the court his conviction amounts to a ban on political dissent.
“In essence, this is a ban on dissent,” Kruglov, 39, said in his final statement before the verdict was read. “It turns out that political disagreement is tantamount to hatred.”
Kruglov was arrested in October 2025 over posts he shared on Telegram three years earlier. The posts referenced United Nations casualty data on the war in Ukraine and reported on events in Bucha, the Kyiv suburb where Russian forces were accused of carrying out a massacre in March 2022. Russian prosecutors charged him under the country’s wartime censorship laws, which make it a criminal offense to discredit the armed forces or circulate what the government deems false information about the war.
Kruglov pleaded not guilty and rejected the prosecution’s claim that his posts were motivated by political hatred against the state.
The sentence is the latest in a wave of politically motivated prosecutions that have intensified since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Thousands of Russians have been penalized under the military censorship statutes, with sentences ranging from fines to lengthy prison terms. The laws have effectively criminalized any public expression of opposition to the war.
The verdict comes three months before Russia’s State Duma elections, scheduled for September 2026. Yabloko, which opposes the war, holds no seats in the national parliament and maintains only a handful of representatives in regional legislatures. A recent state-run Vtsiom poll showed support for non-parliamentary political parties at just 6.3%, while more than two-thirds of respondents backed pro-Kremlin parties.
Yabloko leader Nikolai Rybakov condemned the verdict as unjust and warned of its chilling effect on the political process.
“If people think such sentences are acceptable in Russia, then they might as well not bother voting or support parties other than Yabloko,” Rybakov said.
Throughout his detention, Kruglov was offered his freedom at least ten times on one condition: that he enlist to fight in Ukraine. He refused every offer. In court, he reaffirmed his opposition to the war and his vision for Russia’s future.
“I remain opposed to the war,” Kruglov told the judges. “I believe Russia will one day be a country that its neighbors respect, rather than fear. A country where it is possible to disagree.”
The case against Kruglov is part of a broader crackdown on independent voices that has hollowed out what remains of Russia’s civil society. Independent media outlets have been shuttered or forced into exile. Opposition figures have been jailed, forced to flee, or, in the case of Alexei Navalny, killed in custody. The Kremlin has systematically dismantled the political space for anyone who questions the war or the leadership of President Vladimir Putin.
Russia’s censorship regime has drawn condemnation from human rights organizations and Western governments, but has done little to deter the Kremlin from expanding its crackdown. The laws are enforced with particular severity against public figures who could influence opinion, making Kruglov’s case a test of whether any form of organized political opposition can survive inside Russia.
The geopolitical stakes of the case extend beyond Russia’s borders. Moscow has repeatedly raised the prospect of nuclear escalation as the war in Ukraine grinds through its fourth year, and the suppression of domestic dissent is closely tied to the Kremlin’s ability to sustain the conflict. With no legal outlet for anti-war sentiment, opposition figures like Kruglov face prison or exile. The choice he was offered between a cell and the front lines captures the narrowing set of options available to Russians who refuse to support the war.
As the Duma elections approach, the message from the courts is unambiguous: there is no room in Russia for those who disagree with the war. Kruglov’s seven-year sentence is a warning to anyone considering voicing that disagreement out loud.