The Charité Hospital in Berlin said Navalny was “weaned from mechanical ventilation” and “responded to verbal stimuli”. “It is still too early to measure the potential long-term effects of his severe toxicity,” the hospital added.
A critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin fell ill of suspected poisoning on a Moscow-bound flight from the Siberian city of Tomsk on August 20.
The German government said last week that tests on Navalny had shown “unambiguous evidence” of its use Chemical neurotransmitter from the Novichok Soviet group.
The attack on Navalny drew widespread international condemnation, while the Kremlin remained defiant in the face of global concern about Russia’s role in the incident.
Navalny’s team pointed the finger directly at Putin.
Leonid Volkov, Navalny’s chief of staff, wrote on a photo of Putin’s signature after the poisoning, in a tweet: “In 2020, poisoning Navalny to Novichuk is exactly the same as leaving his signature at the crime scene.” Deleted.
Novichok agents are so unusual that very few scientists outside Russia have any real experience dealing with them.
The Soviet Union secretly developed lethal chemical weapons for the first time during the Cold War. Even today, no country outside Russia is known to have developed material in the group.
Navalny’s poisoning and his questions about the role of the Russian state could drastically change the relationship between Berlin and Moscow.
During an interview with Bild am Sonntag newspaper on Sunday, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas did not rule out freezing the European-Russian gas pipeline project – Nord Stream 2 – in response to the accident.
This position was repeated by a German government spokesman on Monday.
“Advisor [Angela Merkel] “I endorse the foreign minister’s language,” government spokesman Stephen Seibert told a news conference.
Merkel said last week that Germany’s response to the attack on Navalny will depend on the extent to which Russia provides answers on who may be behind the poisoning.
While Seibert did not provide a deadline for such a response on Monday, he made it clear that Germany’s patience was not endless.
“I cannot comment on any timeframes, but we are not talking about months or even the end of the year,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Russian government said it was waiting for more information from Berlin before opening an investigation into Navalny’s poisoning. Germany rejected this explanation.
“All the evidence, witnesses, traces, etc. are in the place where the crime was committed, and it is assumed that it was somewhere in Siberia,” said Christopher Berger, a spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry on Monday.
Burger added that “the allegations directed at Germany about the halt of the progress of the investigation are incorrect, because Russia can start an investigation at any time without Germany if Russia is ready and if it has an interest in it.”
