Navalny discharged

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who the West believes was poisoned with a Soviet-era nerve agent, has been discharged from hospital after a month and can make a full recovery, his doctors in Berlin said yesterday. European leaders have demanded explanations from the Kremlin since Germany said toxicology tests showed the 44-year-old anti-corruption campaigner was poisoned with Novichok.

But the Kremlin has rubbished allegations it was behind the poisoning, and it said on Wednesday that with his recovery, Navalny “is free” to return to Russia anytime, “like any other Russian citizen”. The outspoken Kremlin critic fell ill after boarding a plane in Siberia in August. Russian doctors who first treated him said their tests did not find any toxic substances.

But German lab tests pointed to “unequivocal proof” of Novichok, which was also used to poison ex-double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, England, in 2018. He survived. France and Sweden have since said tests they ran independently corroborate Germany’s conclusions.

Navalny spent 32 days in Charite hospital in the German capital, including 24 days in intensive care, before his release on Tuesday, the hospital said. “Based on the patient’s progress and current condition, the treating physicians believe that complete recovery is possible,” Charite said in a statement, adding however that it remained too early to assess any long-term effects of his severe poisoning.

‘No other option’ Navalny collapsed last month while on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow after a campaign trip to support opposition candidates in local elections. He was evacuated to Berlin on August 22 in a coma and on mechanical ventilation.  Posting a photograph of himself sitting on a Berlin bench, Navalny said on Instagram Wednesday he was far from fully recovered and would require rehabilitation.

“The plans are always simple: a physiotherapist every day. Possibly a rehabilitation center. Stand on one leg. Take back control of my fingers completely. Maintain balance,” he wrote. In his first blog posted on Monday since regaining consciousness, Navalny said that the three European labs had found Novichok “in and on my body”.

He noted that Russia had still not opened an investigation but that he “did not expect anything else.” With his condition improving, his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh has said the opposition leader planned to return to Russia. “No other option has ever been considered,” she told AFP.

Navalny aides said Thursday that German experts found Novichok on a water bottle taken from the hotel room where he stayed before being taken ill.  The bottle appears to have been key evidence for Germany’s conclusion that the lawyer and outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin were poisoned with the deadly nerve agent.