Back from the dead: Poisoned Navalny vows return to Russia
POISONED Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has vowed to return to Russia.
Mr Navalny yesterday posted a picture of himself on Instagram as he recovers in a German hospital.
Looking gaunt after nearly three weeks in a medically induced coma, the opposition leader said he was enjoying the ability to breathe on his own after being targeted with the nerve agent novichok.
The photo is the first image of the 44-yearold since he was rushed to Berlin’s Charite Hospital two days after falling ill on a domestic flight in Russia last month.
‘Hi, this is Navalny,’ he wrote in the Russian-language post. ‘I have been missing you. I still can’t do almost anything on my own, but yesterday I managed to breathe on my own for the entire day.’
Mr Navalny has been a constant irritant to Russian president Vladimir Putin for more than a decade as he wages a war on corruption in Moscow. Despite the attempt on his life, when it is thought the nerve agent was slipped into a cup of tea, he is determined to one day go home and carry on the fight, sources said.
‘[Mr Navalny]’s fully aware of his condition, he’s fully aware of what happened and he’s fully aware of where he is,’ an official told the New York Times.
‘He’s not planning to go into exile in Germany. He wants to go home to Russia and he wants to continue his mission.’
Mr Navalny’s spokesman Kira Yarmysh said: ‘All morning [people] write to me and ask if it is true that Alexei plans to return to Russia. I find it strange that someone could think otherwise. Once again I confirm to everyone: no other options have ever been considered.’
A German military laboratory has determined that Mr Navalny was poisoned with novichok, the same class of Soviet-era nerve agent that was used on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England in 2018.
‘He wants to continue his mission’