Advertise On EU-Digest

Annual Advertising Rates

9/7/20

Germany: Poisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny responsive after being taken out of medically induced coma

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.

Navalny, a fierce, high-profile critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was flown to Germany last month after falling ill on an Aug. 20 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."

The hospital said the decision to publicly release details of his condition was made in consultation with Navalny'swife, Yulia Navalnaya.

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 case.

German authorities said last week that tests showed "proof without doubt" that Navalny was poisoned with a chemical nerve agent from the Novichok group.

Note EU-Digest: the US Trump administration  still has not confirmed  that Mr. Navalny was poisoned.
 
Read more at: 
Poisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny responsive after being taken out of medically induced coma | CBC News

No comments: