Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Tuesday posted a picture on Instagram for the first time since he fell ill after being poisoned last month.

"Hi, this is Navalny," Navalny said in Russian in the caption, which was translated by CNN. "I miss you. I still can hardly do anything, but yesterday I was able to breathe on my own for the whole day. Just myself. I did not use any outside help, not even the simplest valve in my throat."

This was Navalny's first public message since being poisoned. 

Navalny is recovering in a German hospital after getting sick on a flight back to Moscow from Siberia in late August. His aides immediately suspected he'd been poisoned. After an emergency landing, Navalny was first taken to a hospital in Siberia, where doctors rejected the notion he'd been poisoned.