Berlin: Poisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s condition has improved. This has allowed doctors to take him out of an induced coma, the German hospital treating him said Monday. Alexei Navalny is a fierce, high-profile critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He was flown to Germany last month after falling ill on August 20 on a domestic flight in Russia.
German chemical weapons experts say tests show the 44-year-old was poisoned with a Soviet-era nerve agent. It has prompted the German government last week to demand that Russia investigate the case.
“The patient has been removed from his medically induced coma and is being weaned off mechanical ventilation,” Berlin’s Charite Hospital said in a statement. “He is responding to verbal stimuli. It remains too early to gauge the potential long-term effects of his severe poisoning,” the statement added.
The hospital said the decision to publicly release details of his condition was made in consultation with Navalny’s wife. Navalny had been in an induced coma since he was flown to Germany August 22 for treatment.
News of his gradual recovery came as German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office indicated it was willing to step up the pressure on Russia. Merkel has said she might be willing to rethink the fate of a controversial German-Russian gas pipeline project. It is a sign of Berlin’s growing frustration over Moscow’s stonewalling about the case.
German authorities said last week that tests showed ‘proof without doubt’ that Navalny was poisoned. A chemical nerve agent from the Novichok group was used on him. British authorities identified the Soviet-era Novichok as the poison used on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England in 2018.
Russia has denied that the Kremlin was involved in poisoning Navalny. The Kremlin has accused Germany failing to provide evidence about the poisoning that it requested in late August.