Alexey Navalny shares first personal update on his condition since regaining consciousness after poisoning

On Tuesday, September 15, Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny published his first social media post since his poisoning with a Novichok-type nerve agent on August 20.

“Hi, this is Navalny,” he wrote in a post on Instagram. “I miss you. I can hardly do anything still, but yesterday I was able to breathe on my own all day. Completely on my own. No outside help, I didn’t even use the simplest valve in my throat. I really liked it. An amazing process, underestimated by many. I recommend it.”

The post included a group photo of Navalny with his wife Yulia and their children, Zakhar and Daria. 

On Monday, September 14, the Charité Hospital in Berlin, where Navalny is being treated, issued a press release stating that he had been successfully taken off of a ventilator. The doctors added that he was able to leave his bed for short periods of time. This was the first time that Navalny himself gave the doctors permission to release information about the state of his health (previously, they were granted permission by his wife).

According to the New York Times, Navalny spoke with a German prosecutor, a senior German security official said on Monday. “He’s fully aware of his condition, he’s fully aware of what happened and he’s fully aware of where he is,” the source said, on condition of anonymity. “He’s not planning to go into exile in Germany. He wants to go home to Russia and he wants to continue his mission.”

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. 

On September 9, the German weekly Der Spiegel reported that according to its sources, Germany’s security agencies believe Russia’s security services could be behind Navalny’s poisoning. The Kremlin has repeatedly called all accusations about Russia’s involvement in the poisoning unfounded.