Russian activist Kara-Murza out of coma after poisoning, his wife says

Feb. 9 (UPI) -- Russian activist and former journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza regained consciousness in a Moscow hospital after an apparent poisoning, his wife said.

He was hospitalized in critical condition Thursday. On life support and in a coma, he was poisoned, his doctors said, by an unknown substance. With doctors unable to pinpoint the cause of his illness, his system has been cleansed by hemodialysis, and Wednesday his wife Evgenia told ABC News he emerged from the coma.

"He's awake but confused. He doesn't remember anything," she wrote. Evgenia Kara-Murza lives in Virginia with their three children.

Kara-Murza, 35, is a well-known opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin's administration, and works with anti-Putin political parties. He is also an organizer for the political party Open Russia, founded by Mikhail Khodorovsky, the Russian former billionaire imprisoned on fraud charges and now living in Switzerland.

It was the second time in two years Kara-Murza was poisoned. He collapsed in 2015, doctors blaming an unknown toxin for liver, lung and kidney failure. The episode left him with permanent nerve damage. He told U.S. and Russian journalists he believed he was target because of his work, but did not know who was responsible for the attack.

Kara-Murza has appeared before U.S. Congressional committees, calling for sanctions on Russia for human rights abuses. He was a close friend of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was shot and killed in Moscow in 2015.