Russian opponent Alexei Navalni publishes his first photo almost a month after his poisoning

The first photo of the Russian opponent Alexéi Navalni, out of his coma, smiling and surrounded by his family, is already circulating at high speed around the world through social networks.

Navalni, poisoned with a nerve agent, as shown by toxicological tests in three European countries, has been admitted to a Berlin clinic since the end of August, when he was evacuated from Siberia to Germany.

The Navalni case has unleashed a diplomatic storm between Russia and European countries and especially with Germany, the country that has hosted the Kremlin's arch enemy.

"Hello.

I am Navalni.

I miss you, ”he wrote in a photo uploaded to Instagram.

"I still can't do almost anything, but yesterday I was able to breathe all day on my own," the patient wrote.

La Charité, the central Berlin university hospital where he is admitted, said on Monday that the politician had come out of an induced coma and does not need artificial respiration.

Doctors also indicated in a statement that he can get out of bed at times.

In the photo uploaded to the networks, Navalni poses with his wife Julia and their children.

Navalni collapsed during a flight from Siberia to Moscow and the pilot made an emergency landing in Omsk.

There, the ambulance that transported him to the hospital already applied atropine, the antidote, according to sources in his environment, who consider that thanks to the landing, Navalni was able to save his life.

However, the doctors at the Russian hospital assured that they had not found a trace of any poisonous substance in the body of the opponent.

The analyzes carried out in a German military laboratory, and corroborated this week by toxicological tests carried out in France and Sweden, maintain that there is "unequivocal evidence" that the anti-corruption activist was poisoned with a substance from the Novichok group, according to the Government. German.

They are a group of lethal nerve agents developed by the Soviet Army in the 1970s and 1980s.

The former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were attacked with a substance from the same family in 2018 in the United Kingdom.

Kira Yarmisch, a spokesman for the opposition, has assured the German press that Navalni plans to return to Russia as soon as his health permits, without considering exile in Germany.

Last Sunday, Navalni achieved some electoral support in the Russian municipal elections.

The

driven by the extra-parliamentary opposition led by Navalni won several seats, especially in Novosibirsk, the third most populous city in the country and one of the places Navalni visited before being poisoned.

Berlin and European partners have demanded explanations from Moscow about the Navalni case, which has strained relations between Russia and the European Union.

Russia claims that it does not have the evidence on which Germany bases its accusation.