Kremlin critic and opposition leader Alexei Navalny awoke from a coma after an apparent poisoning.
Navalny, who was flown to a German hospital after allegedly being poisoned in August, is awake and responding to verbal stimuli, according to doctors. They said that the long-term effects of his poisoning have yet to be determined.
“The patient has been removed from his medically induced coma and is being weaned off mechanical ventilation,” Berlin’s Charite hospital told the Associated Press in a statement. ”He is responding to verbal stimuli. It remains too early to gauge the potential long-term effects of his severe poisoning.”
German authorities said that medical tests concluded “proof without doubt” that Navalny was poisoned by a chemical nerve agent from the Novichok group, which British authorities found was used on others. Navalny became unconscious during a flight between Russian cities, which his team said was the result of a “toxic poisoning.” He was put on a ventilator in the intensive care unit at the hospital.
Navalny’s team suspected he was poisoned while in prison, though with a different substance.
“It’s different symptoms, obviously a different toxin, but obviously this was done to him intentionally,” said Navalny spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh on a Russian radio station.
