Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has regained the ability to walk and talk after being taken off a ventilator five days ago.

Navalny posted an image of himself walking down a flight of stairs on Instagram with a caption about his experience waking up from an induced coma, stating that he was unable to respond to his doctors when he regained consciousness. 

"Although I understood in general what the doctor wanted, I did not understand where to get the words. What part of the head do they appear in?" Navalny wrote.

"I also did not know how to express my despair and, therefore, simply kept silent. Now I'm a guy whose legs are shaking when he walks up the stairs."

Navalny is Russian president Vladimir Putin's biggest opponent, and he originally fell sick from suspected nerve agent poisoning while in Siberia last month.

He was then airlifted to Berlin to receive treatment. The Kremlin has disputed accusations that he was poisoned, claiming that Russian labs were unable to detect signs of a nerve agent. 

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However, Germany claims that three tests from three different countries have confirmed that Navalny was poisoned.

Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, in turn accused Navalny's colleagues of interfering with the investigation by taking evidence from Navalny's hotel room out of the country.

"There is too much absurdity in this case to take anyone at their word," Peskov said on 18 September.

Navalny added on Instagram that despite his recovery, he still has difficulty pouring water and using his phone.

But he also praised his doctors, stating that "they have turned me from a 'technically alive human being' into someone who has high chances to become... a man who can quickly scroll Instagram and understands without thinking where to put his likes."

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