PSKOV, Aug. 18 -- Lev Shlosberg arrived at the Pskov City Court on Monday knowing the sentence was coming. His three defense attorneys had not. Called to hearings they failed to attend, they were replaced by a state-appointed lawyer whose representation Shlosberg had moved to reject, and whose motions the court declined to hear. Standing at the close of a proceeding his own party called a mockery, the 63-year-old deputy chairman of Russia's Yabloko turned to the judge: "I sympathize with you, Your Honor: you'll have to live with this decision. God will forgive [you]."

The judge sentenced him to 11 years and one month in a penal colony.

The conviction arrives at a moment when Russian political dissent was already narrowing to a point. Ea...