Agencies – Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has come out of the artificial coma on Monday and is responsive, according to the Charite University hospital in Berlin. The hospital stated that he is “responding to verbal stimuli” but that it is too early to assess any possible long-term effects
The hospital, which has been treating Navalny since he was airlifted to Germany after falling ill on a Russian domestic flight last month, said his condition has improved and he is being weaned off mechanical ventilation.
Navalny had been in an induced coma in the Berlin hospital since he was flown to Germany on Aug. 22 for treatment.
News of his gradual recovery came as German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office indicated that she might be willing to rethink the fate of a controversial German-Russian gas pipeline project — a sign of Berlin’s growing frustration over Moscow’s stonewalling about the Navalny case.
Russia has denied that the Kremlin was involved in poisoning Navalny and accused Germany failing to provide evidence about the poisoning that it requested in late August.
On August 20, a plane carrying Navalny made an emergency landing in the Russian city of Omsk after the blogger had suddenly felt ill in mid-flight. Navalny was taken to hospital in a coma and was hooked up to a ventilator. On August 22, he was flown to Germany for treatment at Berlin’s Charite hospital.
