Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been taken out of an induced coma after his suspected poisoning with the nerve agent novichok.
Mr Navalny is now said to be responding to speech at the hospital he is being treated at in Berlin.
Doctors add that despite the improvement in Mr Navalny’s condition, the “long-term consequences of the serious poisoning can still not be ruled out.”
Russia denies poisoning Navalny
A tweet from Mr Navalny’s press secretary said that he is going to be gradually disconnected from the ventilator he is on.
The fierce Kremlin critic, 44, fell ill on a flight to Moscow and had been in an induced coma since he was flown to a hospital in Berlin on 22 August.
Last week, German officials said that tests showed Mr Navalny had been poisoned with novichok – the same nerve-agent used on the Skripals in Salisbury which was developed by the Soviet Union on the 70s and 80s
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the use of novichok showed the “dangerous” attack on Mr Navalny was attempted murder and the aim was to silence him.
She said she has contacted the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons – and expects Russia to carry out an investigation into who was responsible as there are “very serious questions that only the Russian government can answer and must answer”.
The Kremlin said it was unable to give a proper response to the findings, as its ambassador in Germany was summoned.
On Sunday, the German government threatened to rethink its underwater pipeline with Russia, unless the country began cooperating with its investigation into the incident.