Putin critic Navalny shares first photo after suspected novichok poisoning

‘I can still hardly do anything, but yesterday I could breathe all day on my own. Actually on my own’

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny (AP)

Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny shared a photograph from a Berlin hospital on Tuesday, sitting up in bed and surrounded by his family, and said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month.

"Hi, this is Navalny. I miss you all," he wrote in the caption to his Instagram followers. "I can still hardly do anything, but yesterday I could breathe all day on my own. Actually on my own."

Mr Navalny, the leading opponent of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, fell violently sick in Siberia last month and was airlifted to Berlin. Germany says laboratory tests in three countries have determined that he was poisoned with a novichok nerve agent, and western governments have demanded an explanation from Russia.

Moscow has called the accusations groundless. The Kremlin’s chief spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, reiterated on Tuesday that Moscow was open to clearing up what happened to Mr Navalny, but that it needed access to information on his case from Germany.

Mr Peskov said Moscow did not understand why, if French and Swedish laboratories had been able to test his medical samples, Russia was not being given the same access.

The photograph showed Mr Navalny sitting up in bed and looking towards the camera, with his wife Yulia supporting him with her arms and their two children looking on.

The New York Times on Tuesday quoted a German security official as saying Mr Navalny had spoken to a German prosecutor about the attempt on his life and that he planned to return to Russia as soon as he recovered.

Asked about the report, Mr Peskov said: "Any citizen of the Russian Federation is free to leave Russia and return to Russia. If a citizen of the Russian Federation recovers his health, then of course everyone will be happy about that."

Reuters