Alexey Navalny discharged from Berlin hospital, but still undergoing rehabilitation

Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny has been discharged from the Charité Hospital in Berlin, where he was undergoing treatment for poisoning.

“The patient’s condition had improved sufficiently for him to be discharged from acute inpatient care. Alexei Navalny had been receiving treatment at Charité for a total of 32 days, of which 24 days were spent in intensive care. Based on the patient’s progress and current condition, the treating physicians believe that complete recovery is possible. However, it remains too early to gauge the potential long-term effects of his severe poisoning,” the hospital’s press release says.

Following his release from the hospital, Navalny wrote about his plans to undergo rehabilitation in a post on Instagram:

“The plans are still simple: a physiotherapist every day. Possibly, a rehabilitation center. Stand on one leg. Regain full control of [my] fingers. Keep my balance. It’s funny, I dreamed of learning to ride a wakeboard on the wave behind a boat and learned [how] this summer. Now I’m learning to stand on one leg,” he said.

Navalny also promised to spend more time on social media — according to him, a neuropsychologist recommended this, along with reading.

• Russian 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, German officials confirmed that Navalny was poisoned with a substance from the Novichok group of nerve agents. On September 7, Navalny’s doctors brought him out of his coma.
• Western countries are demanding that Russia conduct an investigation into Navalny’s poisoning. The results of Germany’s toxicology analysis have been verified by independent experts in Sweden in Germany, who confirmed that he was poisoned with a Novichok-type nerve agent. However, the Russian authorities maintain that their doctors didn’t find any traces of poison in Navalny’s system and insist that there’s no grounds for a criminal case. The Kremlin has demanded that Germany hand over any relevant evidence.