RUSSIA’S ALEXEI NAVALNY OUT OF COMA, GERMAN HOSPITAL REPORTS

Poisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s condition has improved, allowing doctors to take him out of an induced coma, the German hospital treating him said Monday, Frank Jordans reported for the Associated Press (AP) late on September 7, 2020.

Navalny, a fierce, high-profile critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was flown to Germany last month after falling ill on Aug. 20 on a domestic flight in Russia. German chemical weapons experts say tests show the 44-year-old was poisoned with a Soviet-era nerve agent, prompting the German government last week to demand that Russia investigate the case.

“The patient has been removed from his medically induced coma and is being weaned off mechanical ventilation,” Berlin’s Charite hospital said in a statement. ”He is responding to verbal stimuli. It remains too early to gauge the potential long-term effects of his severe poisoning.” It added that the decision to publicly release details of his condition was made in consultation with Navalny’s wife. Navalny had been in an induced coma in the Berlin hospital since he was flown to Germany on Aug. 22 for treatment.

News of his gradual recovery came as German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office indicated that she might be willing to rethink the fate of a controversial German-Russian gas pipeline project — a sign of Berlin’s growing frustration over Moscow’s stonewalling about the Navalny case.