Elena Perepelitsa, a member of Russia’s liberal Yabloko party, was sentenced on Thursday to four years in a penal colony for donating to the Anti-Corruption Foundation of Alexei Navalny, a politician opposed to the Kremlin.
Perepelitsa argued in court that she had not knowingly financed extremist activities. Yabloko also confirmed the ruling and made Perepelitsa’s defense public.
Pressure on Yabloko members
Perepelitsa’s sentence was the latest example of the legal pressure facing the party, as she became the third Yabloko member sentenced to prison in less than four months. Yabloko was largely barred from taking part in the parliamentary elections held in September.
Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation is designated as a “foreign agent” in Russia and banned as an extremist organization. The charges against Perepelitsa are based on the foundation’s legal classification.

Sentences handed to party leaders
Yabloko Deputy Chairman Maksim Kruglov was found guilty in June of spreading false information about the Russian army and sentenced to seven years in prison.
Lev Shlosberg, another deputy chairman of the party, was charged with discrediting Russia’s Armed Forces and spreading false information about the army after condemning the war in Ukraine. Shlosberg was sent to a penal colony for more than 11 years in August.
Since the war in Ukraine began in 2022, designations of organizations as extremist and strict wartime censorship laws have increased pressure on opposition politicians and activists in Russia. Some opposition figures who remain in the country face investigations for expressing anti-war views and engaging in other opposition activities.