Alexei Navalny says he's recovering from poisoning

Sept. 19 (UPI) -- Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Saturday he is recovering from a poisoning that led to his hospitalization in Berlin.

Navalny said he's on a "clear road" toward recovery after falling ill on a flight from Siberia to Moscow on Aug. 20. His family and political team urged for him to be taken to Berlin for treatment. Doctors said he remained unconscious as a result of the nerve agent poisoning until he woke last week.

Navalny posted picture on Instagram on Saturday showing that he is now able to walk down stairs.

"Let's tell you how my recovery is going," the post read. "This is already a clear road, albeit not a short one."

Navalny added that he is still having trouble using his phone or pouring a glass of water, but he is regaining some mental capacity.

"Quite recently, I did not recognize people and did not understand how to talk. Every morning the doctor came to me and said: Alexei, I brought a board, let's figure out what word to write on it. This drove me to despair because, although I already understood in general what the doctor wanted, I did not understand where to get the words," the post read. "Now I'm a guy whose legs are shaking when he walks up the stairs, but he thinks: 'Oh this is a staircase! Climb along it. Perhaps we should look for an elevator.' And before, I would have just stood there and stared."

Navalny thanked doctors at the Charite Hospital for aiding in his recovery.

On Thursday, Navalny's political team said traces of a deadly military-grade poison, the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok, were found on a water bottle at the Siberia hotel where he stayed before he became ill.

Navalny is an anti-corruption activist and prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov questioned Friday whether the water bottle was to blame for what happened, adding that Russian labs did not find traces of the poison in Navalny's blood.

The Kremlin said there's no reason to blame the Russian government for Navalny's poisoning.

Still, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said there's no doubt Novichok was used to poison Navalny.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that Navalny was "the victim of a crime intended to silence him," and she felt she needed to "take a clear stance" against the poisoning.

Peskov has rejected calls from Merkel to explain what happened to Navalny.

Novichok was also used to poison a former Russian spy and his adult daughter in Britain two years ago.