Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been pictured for the first time since falling ill on a flight due to a suspected poisoning as he revealed he is now breathing on his own and plans to return to his home country.
“Yesterday I was able to breathe on my own all day long, all by myself, without any outside help,” he wrote in an Instagram post, translated by state-run media. “I did not even use the simplest valve in my throat. I liked it very much.”
Navalny, an anti-corruption activist and critic of President Vladimir Putin, has received treatment in Berlin for the last three weeks after he became ill during a flight in Siberia. Russian doctors attributed his condition to “a sudden drop in blood sugar levels,” but German toxicologists reported that he was stricken by the same kind of chemical weapon used in 2018 for the attempted assassination of a former Soviet double agent.
“I still can hardly do anything,” he wrote in the post.
Navalny was targeted while working on a “smart voting” initiative intended to rally support for any opposition candidates who could defeat the regional lawmakers who form “the actual backbone” of Putin’s political power. He plans to return to Russia after making a full recovery.
“All morning journalists have been writing to me and asking, is it true that Alexei plans to return to Russia?” Navalny spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh tweeted Tuesday. “Again I can confirm to everyone: no other options were ever considered.”
The poisoning has exacerbated Western tensions with Russia, although Putin’s team denies any responsibility for his condition. “There are no factors that might have adverse effects or must have some negative influence on our relations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted Tuesday.
German officials curtailed the agenda for an expected visit from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, prompting Moscow to scrap the trip.
“Our minister made the decision to cancel the visit because its agenda was considerably reduced and changed by the German side,” Peskov said.
