On August 20th, the world was left reeling as news came that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was in a coma and on a ventilator after a suspected poisoning. Navalny is a notable critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has utilized his social media activism and transformed it into real-world action by creating the Anti-Corruption Foundation, a crowd-funded organization that frequently details high-level corruption in the Russian government.

Navalny was returning home to Moscow by plane when he mysteriously fell severely ill and eventually lost consciousness causing the plane to make an emergency landing in Omsk where he was rushed to the hospital. Speaking on how Navalny went to the washroom at the beginning of the flight and did not return, a passenger on his flight wrote on Instagram, “He started feeling very poorly. They could barely revive him and he’s still crying out in pain.” Video evidence also shows the Kremlin critic being wheeled out to an ambulance waiting on the Omsk tarmac.

On September 2nd, German Chancellor Angela Merkel disclosed that the poison employed in the attack against Navalny had been identified as Novichok, a deadly chemical weapon. A key piece of evidence utilized in identifying Novichok as the culprit was a water bottle retrieved from Navalny’s hotel room, on which traces of Novichok was discovered suggesting he was poisoned before even arriving at the airport.

Navalny released a statement on his Instagram, revealing he is focused on recovering and surrounding himself with friends and family. “Love heals and brings you back to life,” he captioned on a post that displayed him sitting on the hospital balcony with his wife. “Julia, you saved me, and let it be written in the textbooks on neuroscience,” he continued, as he thanked his wife for bringing him back to life. He attributed hearing her voice with bringing him out of his medically induced coma.

He was recently released from Berlin Charité hospital, where he had spent 32 days recovering, as his condition had “improved sufficiently for him to be discharged from acute inpatient care,” the hospital said in a statement released on Wednesday. “Based on the patient’s progress and current condition, the treating physicians believe that complete recovery is possible,” they added while also acknowledging that it was still not clear what the potential long-term effects of the poison would be. A scientist that worked on Novichok, however, came out apologizing to Navalny for his indirect part in his poisoning. He also stated that “Navalny will just have to be patient but in the end, he should be healthy,” predicting that full recovery would take “almost a year.”

Meanwhile, Russia remains under scrutiny as Navalny accuses the Kremlin of concealing a critical piece of evidence. Writing on his blog, he said, “Before they allowed for me to be taken to Germany, they took off all my clothes and sent me completely naked.” He continued saying, “Considering Novichok was found on my body, and that infection through contact is very likely, my clothes are a very important piece of evidence and I demand that my clothes be carefully packed in a plastic bag and returned to me.” Navalny and many of his supporters have been quite vocal in accusing Russian agents of orchestrating the poisoning. The Kremlin, however, has rejected these claims, instead offering other explanations for Navalny’s poisoning.