The US State Department has said it is in contact with other countries to share available information, which currently remains limited. The American initiative comes after days of public requests for clarification and focuses in particular on the death of Darya Shipilova, a laboratory technician at a research institute involved in studying the plague in Siberia.
Donald Trump has sought to downplay fears that the death may be linked to a Russian military program to develop biological weapons. Answering questions from reporters in the Oval Office, the US president said he did not believe the plague escaped from a laboratory as a result of research of this type: "We don't believe it. We'll find out soon, but we don't believe it." However, Trump underlined that Moscow has so far provided few elements. “Russia doesn't say much,” he noted, adding that the United States expects much greater intelligence sharing. According to the American president, US experts are however collecting and analyzing all available elements.
The case has also fueled comparisons with the early stages of the Covid pandemic, when Beijing was accused of failing to promptly provide information on the origins of the emergency. Trump recognized some similarities in terms of communication, explaining however that these are, in his opinion, "very different" situations. Both China then and Russia now, he noted, claimed to have the situation under control.
To further complicate the picture, there is also uncertainty about a possible conversation between Trump and Vladimir Putin. The American president said he was planning a conversation with the Kremlin leader and hinted that the discussion could concern the management of the Irkutsk case. Trump had already spoken in recent days about an imminent phone call, but no subsequent updates on its actual organization have arrived. Indeed, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied that a meeting between the two presidents had been scheduled, stating that he had no information even on the démarche presented by the United States.
Meanwhile, on the Russian side, the line of reassurance prevails. Rospotrebnadzor, the national agency for public health protection, reiterated that there is no danger of an epidemic for the inhabitants of Irkutsk and the region of the same name. Official statements, however, have not allayed the doubts. As reported by the Telegraph, some residents in the area complain about the lack of communications and consider the precautions taken to be insufficient. Among the elements reported are the alleged unavailability of swabs to carry out tests and the indication to contact a doctor only in the presence of symptoms. Even the disinfection of the building where the deceased researcher lived has fueled questions: according to reconstructions, the building would have been subjected to sanitization interventions at least three times after her death, officially to combat the presence of cockroaches.
Rumors about a possible second death linked to the plague also contribute to keeping attention high. The Kremlin has rejected the rumors, claiming that much of the media reports are baseless. Peskov explained that the Russian authorities also received a request for clarification from the World Health Organization in relation to the rumors about a second case. The spokesperson accused the media of spreading numerous false information on the matter.
Shipilova's mother, Svetlana, who is also a researcher, also rejected the hypothesis of an accidental leakage of the bacterium from a test tube. The woman claimed to know the truth about her daughter's death and ruled out that the contents of a test tube could have accidentally leaked. Some people close to the researcher also disputed the reconstructions circulated after her death. A friend of the young woman accused the media of damaging her reputation without first clarifying the circumstances of her death.
It wasn't just the United States that asked Moscow for further explanations. The World Health Organization has also stated that it does not yet have sufficient information to carry out a full risk assessment. WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recalled that the organization had already requested further information from the Russian Federation on the basis of the International Health Regulations last Saturday. In the absence of a complete picture of what happened, he explained, it is not currently possible to develop an exhaustive risk assessment.
