Alexei Navalny: Russian activist discharged from Berlin hospital

Putin critic Alexei Navalny has been discharged from a Berlin hospital where he was being treated for Novichok nerve agent poisoning.

The Charité Hospital said it was ending acute medical care because his condition had sufficiently improved.

Mr Navalny posted a picture of himself standing unaided with a message saying doctors had given him every chance of a full recovery.

His team alleges he was poisoned on the orders of President Vladimir Putin.

The Kremlin strongly denies any involvement.

Mr Navalny, a leading Russian opposition activist, collapsed on a flight in Siberia on 20 August. He was later transferred to the Charité hospital in the German capital.

What do his doctors say?

A statement from the hospital said that 44-year-old Mr Navalny had spent 32 days there, including 24 days in intensive care.

"Based on the patient's progress and current condition, the treating physicians believe that complete recovery is possible. However, it remains too early to gauge the potential long-term effects of his severe poisoning," it said.

Earlier this month the hospital revealed that Mr Navalny had begun to recover, saying that he had been removed from a ventilator and could leave his bed.

At the time, the German government said that laboratories in France and Sweden had reconfirmed German tests showing that the poison used on Mr Navalny was a Novichok agent.

The Kremlin has said there is no proof of that.

What's the background?

Mr Navalny's supporters initially believed that his tea had been spiked at Tomsk airport in Siberia before he caught a flight to Moscow. However, they later said that traces of the nerve agent had been found on a water bottle in the hotel room where he had been staying.

Mr Navalny became ill during the flight and the plane made an emergency landing in Omsk. Russian officials were persuaded to allow him to be airlifted to Germany two days later.