Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny has published the first photo on his Instagram account since he was woken up from a coma.
"Hi, this is Navalny. I miss you. I still can hardly do anything, but yesterday I was able to breathe on my own all day... I liked it very much. It's an amazing process, underestimated by many people", a comment under a photo reads.
The photo, taken inside Charite hospital, features Navalny, his wife and their children.
On 7 September, the Charite hospital in Berlin, where Navalny is being treated, announced that the patient's condition had become better and he was woken up from a coma.
The Russian opposition figure fell ill during a domestic flight from the Siberian city of Tomsk to Moscow on 20 August. Navalny was first treated in the Siberian city of Omsk, where the plane made an emergency landing. Two days later, once the doctors established that he was fit for aerial transportation, the politician was flown to the Berlin-based Charite hospital for further treatment.
German doctors initially claimed they found traces of a substance from the group of cholinesterase inhibitors in his system, before flagging the "Novichok poisoning".
Last week, the German government stated traces of a nerve agent from the Novichok group had been found in Navalny's system. Moscow said that Russian doctors hadn’t detected any toxic substances before he was transported to Germany and that Berlin has provided no evidence to support its claims. Russia has also sent requests for legal assistance and more information on Navalny's case. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Berlin could share the information about Navalny, but that such sharing is a multistage process.