The Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, has now been discharged from the hospital after being treated for poisoning by a novichok agent
The 44-year-old Russian opposition figurehead, Alexei Navalny, became unwell on a domestic flight in Siberia last month and was subsequently airlifted to Berlin in a coma.
Laboratories in Germany, France and Sweden have all confirmed that he had been poisoned with the same form of nerve agent that was used to target Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in the UK in 2018.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the Charite hospital in Germany said Mr Navalny’s “condition had improved sufficiently for him to be discharged from acute inpatient care”.
It added based on his progress and current condition, “the treating physicians believe that complete recovery is possible”.
But the hospital cautioned “it remains too early to gauge the potential long-term effects of his severe poisoning”.
Alexei Navalny, the anti-corruption campaigner, became ill during a flight in which the plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Omsk, Kira Yarmysh said, adding that they suspected a substance had been mixed into his drink.
Mr Navalny said the first time he saw himself in a mirror after 16 days spent in a coma he looked like a character from Lord of the Rings and feared he would “never be discharged”.
But doctors have performed a “miracle” and he says he now no longer needs to be an in-patient but can get on with the “noramlisation” of life, he wrote on Instagram in a post sent as he was “hobbling through the park”.
Mr Navalny said he is still learning to regain strength in his limbs and cannot throw a ball with his left hand but will get sessions with a physiotherapist every day.
He added when he asked doctors how to exercise his brain, they told him: “Read more, write on social networks, play video games.”
“I need to find out if the hospital can get a PlayStation 5 prescription,” he joked in the sign-off.
Medics at the Charite hospital where Mr Navalny had been treated said his condition “improved sufficiently for him to be discharged from acute inpatient care”.
The hospital added based on his progress and current condition, “the treating physicians believe that complete recovery is possible”.
But it cautioned “it remains too early to gauge the potential long-term effects of his severe poisoning”.
This comes after the German government has said that toxicological exams at Berlin’s Charité hospital have yielded “unequivocal proof” that Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, was poisoned with a novichok nerve agent.
The UK, as well as other Western countries, have began to demand answers from Russia.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called for a “full, transparent investigation into what happened” and has pledged to “join international efforts to ensure justice is done”.
Moscow has said that it is yet to see any evidence of a crime and has declined to open an investigation so far.
The Kremlin has so far denied any involvement in the poisoning.
