The United States has warned Moscow that its failure to disclose details of the death of a laboratory worker at a plague research center in Siberia contravenes its international health obligations, according to US officials.
American officials say that Russia provided the United States with little information about this mysterious incident, which raised fears of the possibility of the spread of an infectious disease inside Russia and outside its borders. This is another source of tension between Russia and the United States, as Trump seeks to improve relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and make progress in efforts to end the war in Ukraine, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Very limited information
President Trump told reporters at the White House that he would have a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin “soon.” When asked what US intelligence agencies were telling him about the incident, the president said he would be able to share more today (Wednesday).
Foreign Secretary Marco Rubio said yesterday (Tuesday) that the information shared by Moscow “is still very limited.” “We encourage Russia to be transparent and share more information with the world, so we can all respond appropriately,” added Rubio, who was in Iceland to discuss security cooperation in the Arctic. Maybe there's nothing there. It may be bigger than we imagined. “We don’t know.”
A US State Department spokesman said that the ministry has officially requested additional information from the Russian government, and is in official contact with other countries around the world to exchange information. Four days after the death of the woman, whose name was mentioned in local media reports as Daria Shepilova, the Russian authorities have not yet revealed the exact cause of her death, saying only that she died of pneumonia. The mystery has sparked speculation that her laboratory work led to her exposure to a deadly pathogen, and raised questions about whether Russia had done enough to contain what authorities described as a contagious disease.
Under the 2005 World Health Convention, known as the International Health Regulations, countries are required to notify the World Health Organization within 24 hours of any event that may become an international public health emergency. The agreement also stipulates that signatory countries are obligated to provide detailed updates, including the results of laboratory tests and the measures taken to contain the threat.
While Moscow has provided some information to the WHO, it has not yet answered basic questions about the case, including what types of tests were conducted.
Irkutsk Governor Igor Kobzev stated earlier this week that specialists conducted comprehensive laboratory analyzes on the woman's body and did not find any "microorganisms linked to her professional activity."
Igor Kobzev confirmed that analyzes of the woman's body did not find any microorganisms linked to her work. The World Health Organization said a possible case of pneumonic plague in Russia poses a "very low" risk outside the country.
The Trump administration withdrew the United States from the World Health Organization earlier this year, in part due to the organization’s handling of the “Covid-19” pandemic.
Transparency and allaying fears!
Experts say Russia should share information about the deadly incident, even if Moscow insists there is no risk of a wider emergency that would require reporting.
“Providing as much transparency as possible will help allay fears of broader international proliferation,” said Hayley Severance, a former policy adviser at the US Department of Defense and a global biopolitics expert at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a non-profit security organization.
The Russian Consumer Protection Authority, which supervises the laboratory where she worked, stated that the cause of her death was “unknown” pneumonia. Since her infection, those who were in contact with her have been placed under medical observation. On Tuesday, the authorities announced that there was evidence that some of those in contact with them were infected with the “Covid-19” virus and the common cold.
Germ weapons programme
The US State Department says Russia still has a bacterial weapons program that violates the Biological Weapons Convention.
The US State Department stated, in a report issued in 2025, that “Russia inherited a previously offensive biological research and development program from the Soviet Union.” She added: “The United States believes that the Soviet program has been absorbed, not dismantled, by the Russian Federation, and that the program has continued and developed.”
In 1979, an accident at a Soviet facility led to an anthrax outbreak in Sverdlovsk, Russia, now known as Yekaterinburg. Soviet officials initially stated that the disease was caused by contaminated meat. Later, Boris Yeltsin, who served as Russia's first president after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, told a Russian newspaper that a "military development" had led to the outbreak.
Lack of confidence in Russian public health institutions has led to fears of a possible epidemic among residents in the Siberian region of Irkutsk, near the border with Mongolia. Likewise, neighboring Central Asian countries have strengthened health safety measures at borders and airports.
Similarities between China and Russia
Beijing has made its first official comment on a suspected case of pneumonic plague in Siberia, saying it is cooperating with Russia, as health concerns mount around the world. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiaqun said yesterday (Tuesday), in response to a question about whether Moscow informed Beijing about the incident: “China and Russia maintain close communication and cooperation to prevent and control infectious diseases, including pneumonic plague,” according to Bloomberg News Agency today (Wednesday).
It is noteworthy that a little more than a month ago, the institute located in Irkutsk concluded an emergency response experiment with China, on dealing with outbreaks of infectious diseases. Russian and Chinese participants also discussed how to monitor and control the spread of diseases in the border areas between the two countries. Irkutsk Province is located in northern Mongolia and does not share a direct border with China, but its local capital is a major center linked to Chinese cities by successive flights and railway lines.
While there are similarities between Russia's reluctance to share information about the incident in Siberia and China's lack of transparency about the Covid-19 outbreak, officials say there is no indication that the Russian case could lead to an outbreak as contagious as the Covid pandemic itself.
President Trump said on Monday that the United States can help deal with this situation. In a response carrying a critical hint at the United States, the Russian consumer watchdog said it was ready to help the United States confront its measles outbreak.
The bacteria Yersinia pestis, which causes pneumonic and bubonic plague, has been observed from time to time in Siberia, and its presence has been linked to exposure to rodents and harmful animals. The website of the Russian Plague Control Institute in Irkutsk states that it was established in 1934 during the reign of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to control plague cases. Since then, the institute has worked to monitor, research and develop treatments for other serious infectious diseases, including cholera, anthrax and brucellosis.
The institute also participated in a joint exercise with China earlier this year to confront a possible outbreak of an infectious disease. “We are monitoring the situation closely, hour by hour,” Rubio said. “There are multiple agencies, not only in the United States but also internationally, that are monitoring this matter.”
