President Donald Trump said he would speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin soon regarding the death of a 28‑year‑old lab worker at a plague research centre in Siberia. Trump added that he could report on the talks, probably, on Thursday.
In response, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied any phone call had been scheduled and said Russia’s reporting of the death to the World Health Organization (WHO) was in line with standard practice. Peskov accused the media of circulating “false information”.
The United States has issued a formal diplomatic message to Russia requesting additional information, a request that Peskov said he was unaware of. Russian officials are investigating the cause of the death, noting that all contacts with the victim tested negative and that the suspected disease has not been confirmed as pneumonic plague.
The WHO’s director‑general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, called for transparency, urging timely, complete and transparent information sharing under the International Health Regulations to clarify conflicting reports and assess public health risks.
Reports first emerged on Friday that almost 200 people were placed under observation in the Irkutsk region after the death. The lab worker, named in Russian media as Darya Shipilova, reportedly fell ill a couple of days earlier. Unconfirmed reports suggested she may have been exposed after breaking a test tube containing the pathogen or during a field trip to an area where plague occurs naturally among wild rodents. Russian health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said the woman died of “pneumonia of an undetermined etiology”.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States has “measures” available to assist Russia if the situation proves more serious than claimed. The bacterium Yersinia pestis, which causes plague, is found among rodents such as marmots in the area and was responsible for the Black Death in Europe in the 14th century.
The Anti‑Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East, founded over a century ago in response to a 1920s outbreak, is the site of the incident. The situation remains under investigation, with both sides awaiting further details before any definitive conclusions can be drawn.
