Navalny 'is free to return to Russia' after he leaves hospital
Moscow: Alexei Navalny is "free to return" to Russia after the opposition leader was discharged from a German hospital following weeks in a coma, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, local time.
After being taken to intensive care for a poisoning in August, Navalny has now been released from inpatient care, the Charité hospital in Berlin said.
German doctors also said they now believe that "complete recovery is possible" for Navalny, while adding that it was too early to talk about potential long-term damage from the poisoning.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been discharged from hospital after treatment for poisoning.Credit:Instagram/AP
Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, told Russian news agencies that there were no obstacles for Navalny to return: "He is free to do it at any moment like any other Russian citizen."
Navalny posted the first photograph of himself out of hospital on Instagram. Pictured on a bench in the woods, he said the first thing he asked his family to do after leaving hospital was to "take me somewhere with trees".
"That day has come - hurrah! - and doctors at the hospital have decided after 32 days that my recovery now requires a normal life instead of inpatient care," he wrote.
A photo taken from a video published by Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny walking down stairs in a hospital in Berlin.Credit:AP
Kira Yarmysh, his spokesman, said that Navalny was staying in Germany for rehabilitation before a planned return to Russia.
Navalny fell ill on a plane from Siberia to Moscow in August and was later taken to Germany for treatment.
Several European laboratories have confirmed he was poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok. He described his immediate plans as "walk, spend time with my family, do physiotherapy every day, possibly a rehabilitation centre".
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny outside, among the trees. Credit:AP
Russian officials have either denied that he was poisoned or insisted that it was only after he was taken to Germany that traces of poison were found.
French newspaper Le Monde cited sources saying that Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, told Emmanuel Macron, the French president, that Navalny may have poisoned himself.
Telegraph, London