Putin critic Navalny out of coma: Berlin hospital

Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been removed from a medically induced coma and is responding to speech, Berlin's Charite hospital said in a statement on Monday.

Francis Maguire reports.

Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been removed from a medically-induced coma and is responding to speech, but the long term effects of his suspected poisoning are unclear.

That's according to the Berlin hospital where he is being cared for on Monday (September 7).

It said Navalny is also being weaned off a mechanical ventilator.

Navalny, an opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, fell ill on a domestic flight in Russia last month and was later airlifted to a hospital in Germany.

German authorities say Navalny was poisoned with Novichok, the same Russian-designed nerve agent that the British government says was used to poison Sergei Skripal - the former Russian double agent and his daughter -- in the UK two years ago.

Moscow, however, says it has seen no evidence that Navalny was poisoned and has always denied any involvement in the Skripal case.