In a pair of blows delivered within hours of each other, a Russian court on Monday sentenced prominent opposition politician Lev Shlosberg to 11 years and one month in a penal colony, while the country's Supreme Court upheld a ban on his party, Yabloko, from participating in September's parliamentary elections. The twin rulings effectively eliminate the last legally registered anti-war voice from Russia's political landscape.

Shlosberg, 63, the deputy chair of Yabloko, was convicted by a court in Pskov — a city in north-western Russia — on two charges: