Russian Opposition Leader Navalny Shares First Photo Since Alleged Poisoning

Novichok poisoning apparently has its perks.

Days after saying he would soon return to Russia as he prepares to leave the Charite hospital in Berlin, where he has been treated for more than a week, Russian opposition candidate Alexei Navalny posted a photo to his Instagram depicting him flanked by his winsome family, decked out in nursing scrubs and face masks.

“Hi, it’s @Navalny. I miss you!” Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny emerges from coma and posts his first Instagram, featuring his wife and kids. He says he is finally able to breathe completely on his own. “I highly recommend it,” he adds. https://t.co/XquqR6dk67 pic.twitter.com/pig57x2ZsN

— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) September 15, 2020

Moscow has insisted in recent days that it has “nothing to hide” when it comes to the latest ‘alleged poisoning’ involving the notorious opposition politician.  Moscow has vehemently denied any role in the attack, and even offered to send investigators to Berlin to examine Navalny and insist in the investigation.

Yet, the accolades rolled in.

The world’s bravest man. The world’s bravest family.

— Patrick Maloney (@PatatLFPress) September 15, 2020

Journalists had previously pointed out that Navalny’s investigative journalism has brought him into conflict with a range of oligarchs, any one of whom could have organized the attack.

While Germany insists that a military lab found traces of Novichok, a deadly nerve agent, on Navalny, Russian doctors said no such evidence turned up in their exam. They have also insisted that these findings have been “independently corroborated” by Sweden and France.

In his Instagram post, Navalny revealed that he can breath again.

“I still can’t do many things, but yesterday I could breathe by myself the whole day,” Navalny said. “I did not use any outside help, not even the simplest valve in my throat. I liked it a lot.”

Navalny was reportedly poisoned last month, when he collapsed inside a private plane ferrying him from Siberia back to Moscow. He was treated at a hospital in Siberia before being air-lifted to Germany.

During regional elections held over the weekend, Russia’s ruling party suffered a handful of setbacks in city council votes, though they also won several landslide victories, as NBC News reported.