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Alexei Navalny tells wife: your love saved my life

Alexei Navalny, pictured with his wife Yulia, has been convalescing in a Berlin hospital since late August when he evacuated from Siberia - Handout/EPA-EFE
Alexei Navalny, pictured with his wife Yulia, has been convalescing in a Berlin hospital since late August when he evacuated from Siberia - Handout/EPA-EFE

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has written an emotional note to his wife, saying that her love saved him from death after his poisoning with Novichok nerve agent.

The 44-year old father of two spent weeks on a ventilator in a medically induced coma after falling ill on a flight from Siberia to Moscow last month.

Mr Navalny, who was still in the coma when he was due to celebrate his 20th wedding anniversary with his wife Yulia, was finally able to walk last weekend.

The top Kremlin critic in an Instagram post on Monday described lying in his hospital bed just after he regained consciousness, unaware of what was happening around him but feeling his wife’s presence.

“I remember lying in bed all the time waiting for her. She comes in and fills the room… When she goes away, I get sad and start waiting for her again.”

Mrs Navalnaya, an economist by training and stay-at-home mother, has been a vocal supporter of her husband, taking on authorities on social media and in public speeches whenever he received threats or was arrested at opposition rallies.

“Whatever scientific or medical explanation there is, I know for sure from my experience: love heals and brings you back to life,” Mr Navalny said in the Instagram post.

“Yulia, you have saved me, and I want it written down in neurobiology textbooks.”

Several European laboratories independently confirmed that the politician was poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok that was previously used in the attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury.

Sergei Naryshkin, head of the Russian foreign intelligence agency SVR, on Tuesday lashed out at Western countries for politicising Mr Navalny's poisoning to hurt Russia’s economic interests.

The spy agency is “witnessing heightened efforts by some Western countries to give the so-called Navalny case a spin,” he said in an SVR statement.

“It becomes increasingly clear that Nord Stream 2 is one of the main goals of this campaign.”

The Nord Stream gas pipeline, led by Russia’s state-owned Gazprom as well several Western energy companies, is expected to double the capacity of the existing pipeline bringing natural gas from Russia to Germany.

The construction is nearing completion with the pipeline expected to be operational by early next year. Germany has faced pressure to cancel the project from the United States, which has been a vocal critic of the gas pipeline as a potential tool of Russian influence.

German authorities have repeatedly defended the project, describing it as something that addresses the country’s immediate energy needs but Chancellor Angela Merkel is facing increasing questions over her support for the project now that Mr Navalny is convalescing in a Berlin hospital.

Mr Naryshkin, who previously insisted that no poison was detected in Mr Navalny’s body before he was flown to Germany, in the SVR statement on Tuesday warned that Europe would face a “cold winter and it would need a lot of gas.”

He and other officials denied suggestions that the top Kremlin critic was deliberately poisoned.

Although Russia never launched a criminal investigation into the poisoning, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday accused Mr Navalny’s associates of tampering with evidence by removing items from his hotel room shortly after he got sick.

Mr Navalny’s team revealed last week that traces of Novichok were found on the water bottles they had taken from his room and sent to Germany for tests.