Navalny improving in German hospital: report

A top political opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin is making progress in his recovery after being poisoned with a Soviet-era nerve agent, according to a German magazine.

Reuters reported Thursday that new information published in the German magazine Der Spiegel indicated that Alexei Navalny’s condition was improving as he stays in a German hospital where he was taken after what German officials say was an assassination attempt.

Navalny fell ill last month while he was flying on an airplane and was later hospitalized, according to reports.

Navalny has regained his ability to speak, according to Der Spiegel, and “can likely remember details about his collapse,” while a spokesperson for Navalny cautioned to Reuters that the Der Spiegel story “is exaggerated and contains many factual inaccuracies.”

Germany’s government has demanded answers from Russia over the alleged assassination attempt, which mirrors the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy living abroad in the United Kingdom in 2018. President Trump has said that he is awaiting Germany’s findings on the investigation, telling reporters that he had not yet seen proof of Russia’s involvement.

“We haven’t had any proof yet,” Trump said during a White House news briefing last Friday.

“I would be very angry if that’s the case, so we’ll take a look at the numbers and the documents, because we’re going to be sent a lot of documents over the next few days,” he added.

Other U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have gone further, suggesting that Navalny’s assassination was ordered by top Russian officials.

“There is a substantial chance that this actually came from senior Russian officials,” Pompeo told conservative pundit Ben Shapiro during an interview on Shapiro’s podcast.

“We’ll make sure we do our part to do whatever we can to reduce the risk that things like this happen again,” the secretary continued.