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(CNN)Traces of poison were found on a bottle of water from the hotel room in Siberia where Alexey Navalny stayed before falling ill, the Russian opposition politician's team said on Instagram Thursday.
The Kremlin critic's team initially thought he was poisoned after drinking tea in Tomsk airport before boarding a return flight to Moscow.
As soon as Navalny fell ill, his team on the ground said they "called a lawyer, went up to the room that Navalny had just left, and began recording, describing, and packing everything they found there. In particular the bottles of hotel water."
"Two weeks later, it was on the bottle from Tomsk that the German laboratory found traces of Novichok," they said. "And then two more laboratories that took tests from Alexey confirmed that Navalny was poisoned by it [Novichok].
"Now we understand: this was done before he left his room to go to the airport," his team added.
After initially being taken to a Siberian hospital, Navalny was evacuated to Germany for treatment at Berlin's Charite Hospital, where he remains.
The German government has said the Kremlin critic was poisoned with a chemical agent from the Novichok group, a conclusion supported by two other labs in France and Sweden.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which is assisting German authorities in the case, said Thursday it was also running tests on samples collected from Navalny.
Novichok agents are both lethal and highly unusual, so much so that that very few scientists outside of Russia have any real experience in dealing with them, raising questions about Moscow's role in the poisoning.
Novichok was also used in a March 2018 attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in the English city of Salisbury.
Navalny plans return to Russia
On Tuesday Russia said it had "eliminated" all warfare agents, including Novichok, according to state news agency TASS which cited the director of Russia's foreign intelligence service (SVR) Sergei Naryshkin.
"[The warfare agents] were eliminated in accordance with [OPCW] procedures and rules which was properly documented. Any speculation Russia still produces or keeps in stock the old reserves of chemical warfare agents are disinformation, of course," Naryshkin said, according to TASS.
Naryshkin added that no poisonous substances "were detected in Navalny's body" when the opposition leader left Russia for Germany. The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the incident.
The anti-corruption activist's condition is slowly improving in Berlin, where doctors have weaned him off mechanical ventilation.
Navalny posted a photograph of himself sitting up in a hospital bed and surrounded by his family on September 15.
In his first direct message after his hospitalization, Navalny said he was now breathing on his own without medical support.
"Hi, this is Navalny," the politician wrote in the caption.
"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."
On Monday, the hospital said Navalny was able to leave his bed for short periods of time.
Navalny intends to return to Russia following his recovery, his spokesperson told CNN on Monday.
An earlier version of this story incorrectly described the video statement from Alexey Navalny's aides. They did not say he was made ill by drinking from the water bottle but said traces of Novichok were found on it.
