During his year-end news conference, the Russian president glibly brushed aside international suspicions that Kremlin agents were behind the attempted assassination of the leading opposition figure.

An investigation by Bellingcat, an Internet research organization, and other media outlets, revealed that for years, Russian agents secretly followed Alexei Navalny.

It is "reasonable to conclude," the EU says, "that the poisoning of Alexei Navalny was only possible with the consent of the Presidential Executive Office."

In an interview, the Russian opposition leader accuses President Vladimir Putin of ordering the attack with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok. A Kremlin spokesperson calls the accusation groundless.

A spokeswoman says the Russian opposition leader's bank accounts were frozen and his Moscow apartment "seized" in connection with a libel suit while he was in a coma after poisoning by a nerve agent.

Navalny spent 32 days in Berlin's Charité Hospital, 24 of them in intensive care. Independent lab tests in three countries confirmed he had been poisoned by a Soviet-era nerve agent.

The 44-year-old fell ill last month on a domestic flight in Russia. German doctors confirmed he had consumed a Soviet-era nerve agent.

Novichok is the same nerve agent used in a 2018 attack in Britain on former KGB spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia. A German government spokesman says the evidence is "without a doubt."

The Russian opposition figure has been in a medically induced coma since last week. He is in serious but stable condition, the Charité hospital in Berlin said on Friday.

Alexei Navalny, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's most prominent critics, was poisoned by an unknown substance from a group of drugs that affect the nervous system, doctors say.

Doctors in Siberia have reversed their initial decision, that it would be risky to move Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny His family says Navalny was poisoned.

Navalny is unconscious and on a ventilator, according to his spokeswoman. The Vladimir Putin critic became ill during a commercial flight. His personal doctor wants him to be treated in Europe.