Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has accused President Vladimir Putin of being behind his poisoning. “I assert that Putin is behind this act, I don’t see any other explanation,” he told the German weekly Der Spiegel, in his first interview published since he left the German hospital where he was treated.

A staunch Putin critic, Navalny (44) fell ill during a flight from Siberia to Moscow on August 20. His aides claimed he was poisoned. After spending two days at a Russian hospital, he was airlifted to Germany for treatment. 

Germany has said Navalny was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent, a claim that Russia has repeatedly refuted.

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In a blog post last month, the opposition leader said two independent laboratories in France and Sweden have confirmed the presence of Novichok in his body. 

The nerve agent used in the attack was the same class of poison that Britain said was used on the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury in 2018.

Though Navalny supporters point to a state-ordered crime, the Russian authorities have denied all involvement in the poisoning.

Russia insists its medical tests did not detect any poison in Navalny’s body.