Alexey Navalny’s condition continues to improve as German doctors successfully take him off ventilator

Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny, who is undergoing treatment for nerve agent poisoning at Berlin’s Charité Hospital, has been “successfully removed from mechanical ventilation,” the hospital stated in a press release. 

According to the statement, Navalny’s condition continues to improve and he is able to leave his bed for short periods of time.

Opposition politician and anti-corruption activist Alexey Navalny was on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow when he fell violently ill on August 20. The plane made an emergency landing in Omsk, where he was hospitalized in a coma; two days later he was transferred to Germany for treatment. 

On September 2, the German officials confirmed that Navalny was poisoned with a substance from the Novichok group of nerve agents. The confirmation came from tests conducted at a toxicology lab run by the German military, which found traces of a poisonous substance from the Novichok group in Navalny’s skin, blood, and urine samples. 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Navalny the victim of a crime and demanded an explanation from Russia. The European Union and the United States have both threatened sanctions over Navalny’s poisoning. Meanwhile, the Kremlin stated that it sees no grounds for accusations against the Russian government.