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The state of health of the Russian critic of the regime Alexei Navalny has improved. “The patient’s artificial coma, which was sustained by the medication, ended,” the Berlin University Hospital Charité announced via Twitter on Monday.
The poisoned Russian opposition politician was gradually removed from mechanical ventilation and responded to speeches. However, the long-term consequences of severe poisoning cannot be ruled out, he said.
Navalny has been treated at the Charité since Aug. 22, after he collapsed two days earlier during a flight in Russia. The German government said last week that Navalny had been poisoned “without a doubt” with a chemical nerve agent from the so-called Novichok group. The poison was developed by Soviet scientists in the 1970s.
Moscow rejects any blame for the health of the prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin. The charges against the Russian government in connection with the poisoning are “absurd”. “Attempts to somehow associate Russia with it are unacceptable to us, they are absurd,” Putin’s spokesman told reporters in Moscow on Monday.
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel no longer rules out the possibility that the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea gas pipeline, in which the Austrian OMV also participates, could be affected by possible sanctions against Russia. Merkel agrees with Maas’ remarks over the weekend, government spokesman Steffen Seibert said. Maas had said that he hoped that Russia’s reaction would not lead to the project having to be reconsidered.
