Thread by @fromTGA

1. For non-Russian speakers here is an unofficial translation (h/t our Dahrendorf Scholar Ellen Leafstedt) of Alexei Navalny's @navalny @teamnavalny quite remarkable (and humorous - see 8.) Instagram post about his recovery. [thread of single text]

2 "Let me tell you how my recovery is going. It is already a clear path, though not a short one. All my current problems are trivial ones, like the fact that the phone in my hands feels as useless as a stone, and that anytime I pour myself some water it turns into a whole scene

3 Let me explain. Until just recently, I couldn't recognize people and couldn't understand how to talk. Every morning the doctor came to me and said, "Alexey, I brought a board, let's think of a word to write on it." This drove me into despair, because

4. although I generally understood what the doctor wanted, I did not understand where to come up with the words. What part of your mind do words come from? Where do you find a word and how can you make it mean something? All this was decidedly incomprehensible. But I also did not

5....know how to express my frustration, and therefore simply kept silent. And the later stage I am describing is only the one that I actually remember....

6. Now I'm a guy whose legs shake when he walks up the stairs, but he does think to himself: “Oh, this is a staircase! They climb up those. Maybe let's look for an elevator instead." Whereas before, I would have just stood there and stared.
....

7. So there are still many problems to be solved, but the amazing doctors at the Charité University Hospital Berlin have solved the main problem....

8. They turned me from someone who was "technically alive" into someone who has every chance of becoming the Highest Form of Being in Modern Society again -- a person who can quickly scroll through Instagram and can find the 'like' button without thinking twice about it."