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Alexei Navalny, a critic of the Kremlin, was brought out of a medically induced coma and is responding to the speech, Berlin’s Charite hospital said today in a statement.
The hospital, which has been treating Navalny since he was flown to Germany for treatment after falling ill on a Russian domestic flight last month, said his mechanical ventilation is being withdrawn.
“It is too early to assess the possible long-term effects of his severe poisoning,” Charite said in a brief statement.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that Berlin has concluded that Navalny was poisoned with Novichok.
Novichok was the same substance that was used against former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury two years ago.
The Skripal case, the first offensive use of chemical weapons in Europe since World War II, led NATO to expel seven Russian diplomats in retaliation.
Allies of Navalny, an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, say he may have been poisoned by a cup of tea he drank at Tomsk airport in Siberia.
But the Russian doctors who treated the politician first said their tests found no toxic substances. The Kremlin has rejected international requests for investigation.
Moscow says it has seen no evidence that he has been poisoned.
In 2006, Russia was blamed for the radiation poisoning death of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London.
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