Alexei Navalny awakens from coma, confirms German hospital

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who according to Germany was poisoned by a weapons-grade Novichok nerve agent, has now emerged from a medically induced coma and his mechanical ventilation is being turned off, the Berlin hospital that treats him said.

“He is responding to verbal stimuli,” the Charite hospital said in a statement, reporting that the 44-year-old’s condition “has improved.”

Navalny spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said: “He was brought out of an artificial coma today.

“Little by little they will disconnect it from the fan. It responds to the speech and calls it.”

However, the hospital said it was too early to determine the long-term impact of the poisoning.

Navalny fell ill after boarding a plane in Siberia last month. He was initially treated at a local hospital before being transferred to Berlin for treatment.

The German government said last week that toxicology tests have found “unequivocal evidence” that Novichok was used at Navalny, prompting Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Western counterparts to demand answers from Russia.

On Monday, Merkel’s spokesperson stressed that she would not rule out consequences on the billion-euro Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project if Moscow did not fully investigate the case.

However, the Kremlin has denounced attempts to blame Russia for the poisoning as “absurd”.

Novichok is a military grade poison that was developed by the Soviet government towards the end of the Cold War and can be used in the form of an ultrafine powder, liquid or vapor.

It was used against former double agent Sergei Skripal in Britain in 2018, a poisoning that the West believes was ordered by the Kremlin.