Extract from ABC News
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is able to breathe on his own and briefly leave his hospital bed, his doctors said, while Germany announced that French and Swedish labs have confirmed its findings that he was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok.
Key points:
- Mr Navalny was brought out of an induced coma last week
- Doctors say there may be long-term health problems from the poisoning
- Tests by French and Swedish scientists confirm Germany's earlier findings
Mr Navalny, 44, was flown to Berlin for treatment at the Charite hospital two days after falling ill on a domestic flight in Russia on August 20.
Germany has demanded that Russia investigate the case, while Moscow has accused the West of trying to smear Russia.
Mr Navalny has "successfully been removed from mechanical ventilation" and is able to leave his bed "for short periods of time," the hospital said.
Although noting the improvement in Mr Navalny's health, the statement didn't address the long-term outlook for the anti-corruption campaigner and most prominent opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Doctors previously cautioned that even though Mr Navalny is recovering, long-term health problems from the poisoning cannot be ruled out.
Additional tests confirm poison
The German government said tests by labs in France and Sweden backed up findings by a German military lab that Mr Navalny was poisoned with Novichok, the same class of Soviet-era agent that Britain said was used on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England, in 2018.
The Hague-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was also taking steps to have samples from Navalny tested at its designated labs, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said.
He said Germany had asked France and Sweden for an independent examination of the findings.
German officials said labs in both countries, as well as the OPCW, took new samples from Mr Navalny.
"In efforts separate from the OPCW examinations, which are still ongoing, three laboratories have meanwhile independently of one another presented proof that Mr Navalny's poisoning was caused by a nerve agent from the Novichok group," Mr Seibert said.
French President Emmanuel Macron expressed "deep concern over the criminal act" that targeted Mr Navalny during a phone call Monday with Mr Putin, his office said.
He confirmed France reached the same conclusions as its European partners on the poisoning, the statement said.
President Putin denies involvement
The Kremlin said the accusations against Russia were "unfounded" and emphasized Moscow's demand for Germany to hand over analyses and samples.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the West of using the incident as a pretext to introduce new sanctions against Moscow.
Mr Lavrov, who has cancelled a scheduled trip Tuesday to Berlin, said Russian authorities have conducted a preliminary inquiry and documented the meetings Mr Navalny had before falling ill.
He said Russian authorities needed to see evidence of his poisoning before they launched a full criminal investigation.
"We have our own laws, whereby we cannot believe someone's say-so to open a criminal case," he said, adding that "for now, we have no legal grounds" for such a probe.
Berlin has rejected suggestions from Moscow that it is dragging its heels on sharing evidence.
With Germany's findings corroborated by labs abroad, "we do not expect the bringer of the bad news — namely us — to be attacked further, but rather that they should deal with the news itself," German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said of Russian authorities.
Asked why no samples from Mr Navalny have been given to Russia, German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Adebahr replied that "Mr Navalny was in Russian treatment in a hospital for 48 hours."
Russian doctors who treated Mr Navalny in Omsk said no evidence of poisoning could be found, adding he was too unstable to be transferred.
A German charity sent a medical evacuation plane to bring him to Berlin, which it did after German doctors said he was stable enough to be moved.
"There are samples from Mr Navalny on the Russian side," Ms Adebahr said.
"The Russian side is called on, even after three independent labs have established the result, to explain itself, and Russia has all the information and all the samples it needs for an analysis."
Mr Navalny was kept in an induced coma for more than a week as he was treated with an antidote before hospital officials said a week ago that his condition had improved enough for him to be brought out of it.
AP
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