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Berlin Hospital Says Poisoning Symptoms Lessening in Russian Opposition Figure Alexei Navalny

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Berlin’s Charite Hospital said on Wednesday that the symptoms of "poisoning" in Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny were gradually subsiding although his condition remains serious.
Sputnik

"The health condition of Alexei Navalny, who has been treated in Charite University Hospital Berlin since August 22, 2020, remains serious. The symptoms triggered by what has been confirmed as poisoning with a cholinesterase inhibitor are waning. The reason for this is a gradual regeneration of cholinesterase activity," the clinic said.

Navalny remains in intensive care and is on a ventilator, according to a press release. The hospital expects his treatment to take a long time. It does not rule out a long-term effect on his health. Navalny’s doctors are in close contact with his wife.

The German government claimed earlier in the day that tests performed on the 44-year-old’s samples showed that he had been exposed to a nerve agent from the Novichok group.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov clarified that Berlin hadn't informed Moscow about its conclusions regarding Navalny's alleged "poisoning" with Novichok.

On 20 August, Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny fell gravely ill during a domestic Russian flight. Following an emergency landing in the Siberian city of Omsk, he was taken to a local hospital and, according to regional doctors, he arrived just 17 minutes after landing.

For the next 44 hours, doctors waged an uninterrupted struggle for his life, as he went into a coma and was put on an artificial lung ventilator.

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Immediately after Navalny fell ill, his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh claimed that he might have been poisoned.

Upon conducting multiple tests, Russian medics established that no traces of poison had been found in his system, saying that Navalny's condition was caused by an abrupt drop of glucose in his blood due to a metabolic imbalance.

On 22 August, Navalny was flown to Berlin for further treatment. German doctors claimed that they had found traces of a substance from the group of cholinesterase inhibitors in his body, which the Russian doctors denied, referring to his test results.

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