Navalny would 'for now' stay in Germany, spokeswoman says after his discharge

Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny will “for now” stay in Germany to continue his treatment, his spokeswoman said hours after he was discharged from a hospital in Berlin. Navalny, a major critic of Russian PM Vladimir Putin, was being treated for what Germany has said is a case of poisoning. However, he was discharged from acute patient care on September 22, after his health ‘improved sufficiently’.

"Alexei Navalny will, for now, remain in Germany because his treatment is not over. Nevertheless, doctors now predict full recovery,” spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said in a video posted on Twitter.

Navalny’s poisoning 

The 44-year-old became seriously ill aboard a Moscow-bound flight on August 20 and he spent almost 32 days in the Berlin hospital, 24 of which were in the intensive-care unit. German health authorities had confirmed the poisoning of Navalny with a nerve agent from the Novichok group, citing toxicological test results. Later, specialist laboratories in France and Sweden also confirmed the poisoning with the Soviet-style nerve agent Novichok. Germany informed on September 18 that the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is still investigating the cause independently.

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Navalny's team said that the politician was poisoned at his hotel room in the Siberian city of Tomsk and not at the airport as suspected earlier. The team informed that they collected everything they could from the hotel room on the day he fell sick and sent it to Germany for investigation. The German laboratory found traces of Novichok agent on bottles collected from Navalny's room.  

Read: Navalny Discharged From Berlin Hospital, Doctors Say 'complete Recovery Possible'

Read: German Govt On Navalny, Lukashenko's Inaguration

(image credit: AP)