- Title: Navalny's Black Forest fitness trainer, says he prepared for risks of returning
- Date: 25th February 2021
- Summary: IBACH, GERMANY (FEBRUARY 19, 2021) (REUTERS) TRADITIONAL STYLE WOODEN HOUSE IN SNOW ENTRANCE TO IBACH / VIEW OF TOWN (MUTE) HOUSE WITH TRADITIONAL BALCONIES IN SNOW SIGN FOR IBACH WITH SNOWY HILLS IN BACKGROUND CHURCH VARIOUS OF SNOW SCENES IBACH MAP TOWN IN SNOW TRADITIONAL BALCONIES FITNESS TRAINER, BJOERN LEBER EXERCISING WITH ROPES (SOUNDBITE) (German) 23-YEAR-OLD FITN
- Embargoed: 11th March 2021 10:12
- Keywords: Alexei Navalny Bavaria Black forest Ibach President Vladimir Putin Russia exile poisoning prison recuperation
- Location: IBACH, GERMANY
- City: IBACH, GERMANY
- Country: Germany
- Topics: Europe,Editors' Choice
- Reuters ID: LVA001E154Z7R
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: It was eighteen days after doctors placed him in a drug-induced coma, following his poisoning with a military-grade nerve agent in Siberia, before Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny began to respond to the words of his wife Yulia and was eventually fit enough to be taken to a secretive location in the idyllic snowy hills of the Black Forest in Germany, where he was able to recover and gather strength for his return to Russia.
As he first emerged from the coma and what he would later describe as days of appalling hallucinations, he found himself in a Berlin hospital, over 2,800 miles to the west, where he'd been evacuated for emergency treatment. He recounted how he had to be lifted into a chair from his hospital bed; and how he would sit with his mouth open staring at a single spot on the wall.
In the months that followed his near death last August, Navalny pushed himself back to physical fitness in the Black Forest and took his war with Putin to a new level by targeting him directly, for the first time, with a video investigation into a lavish Black Sea palace.
Reuters spoke to more than a dozen people who met with or spoke with Navalny during his time in Germany. They include financial backers, some of Navalny's top lieutenants and German officials. They recounted how his single-minded sense of his own political mission didn't waver and he never entertained staying in the West to wage his political campaign against Putin from abroad. On the contrary, Navalny's peers say that after he had concluded that Putin had personally ordered his poisoning, Navalny became more and more determined to try to undermine the veteran Russian leader.
After being discharged from hospital, Navalny resurfaced in mid-October in the remote village of Ibach in the Black Forest to complete his recovery. Locals told Reuters he flew in late at night by helicopter.
Navalny moved with his wife and son into a big apartment in an upscale complex with views of the Alps. Commandos guarded Navalny's new home, said three people who visited him there.
Bjoern Leber, a 23-year-old fitness trainer, was hired to help Navalny regain his fitness. Leber told Reuters he got the job when one of Navalny's assistants walked into a gym in the nearby town of St. Blasien and asked for a trainer who spoke English and could keep a secret.
At the start, Leber said, Navalny "had lost a lot of strength. He barely could muster five push-ups, and they were shaky push-ups at that." He struggled to get into a car.
The two men spent hours boxing, juggling and running in the apartment where most of the training took place. They also used a counter-current swimming pool in the basement spa.
"I asked him whether he thought it was a good idea," said Leber of Navalny's decision to return to Russia, and at one point he said: "if I don't try I will never know" and I can understand that as I think that if he had stayed he would not have reached the same audience as by going back. He knew the risks, as did his family."
Leber also introduced Navalny to Black Forest gateau. Navalny posted pictures on Instagram: at a lake or in a meadow with his wife and son.
When not exercising, Leber said Navalny worked on his MacBook, had physiotherapy, or went sightseeing.
Having publicly posted his flight details, Navalny was accompanied by a gaggle of journalists on his return, with his wife, to Moscow.
Before arriving, his plane was diverted to another Moscow airport to thwart his supporters.
His arrest was swift. Four masked police officers intercepted him at passport control. Navalny, after kissing his wife Yulia on the cheek, walked away with them.
A couple of weeks later, a Moscow court jailed Navalny for nearly three years for parole violations, ignoring a Western outcry over his treatment and nationwide protests that had attracted tens of thousands in the middle of winter.
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