Trump to Speak With Putin Over Siberia Plague Scare as US Pressure on Moscow Mounts

US President Donald Trump said Tuesday he would speak “very soon” with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the unexplained death of a laboratory worker at a plague research institute in Siberia, as Washington presses Moscow for greater transparency over the incident. The planned call comes at an increasingly sensitive moment in US-Russia relations, with the Trump administration also holding new sanctions powers over Moscow as Russia continues its war against Ukraine.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. “I have a call scheduled, yes,” Trump said when asked whether he had spoken with the Russian leader about the case, adding that the conversation would take place “very soon.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier urged Russia to disclose more information about the death, which has triggered concern over whether a worker at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute may have been exposed to pneumonic plague. “We encourage Russia to be transparent and share more information with the world so that all of us could react accordingly and appropriately,” Rubio said during a trip to Iceland. “Depending on what we learn about it, we would learn how to respond.” The comments came as the World Health Organization also called for complete and timely information from Moscow. What happened in Irkutsk The case centers on 28-year-old laboratory worker Darya Shipilova, who worked at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East and died last week after developing pneumonia of an undetermined origin. Other Topics of Interest Lithuania Moves Closer Toward Scrapping Nuclear Weapons Ban The amendment passed its first reading on Tuesday, with a final vote scheduled for Jan. 12, 2027. Local media reports raised the possibility that Shipilova had contracted pneumonic plague following an accident involving laboratory material, including claims that a test tube may have broken. Russian authorities have disputed those accounts and said there was no evidence of an accident involving dangerous pathogens. Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s public health watchdog, said testing had not detected plague among people who came into contact with Shipilova and that no microorganisms connected with her professional work had been found in samples taken from her. Authorities initially placed around 200 contacts under observation or quarantine, according to Russian and international reports. Most have since been released, while testing detected some cases of COVID-19 and rhinovirus but no plague infections. Russian officials have also denied reports circulating online that extraordinary anti-plague restrictions were being imposed in the region. WHO presses Moscow for information The WHO said Tuesday that Russia had formally informed the organization that there were no confirmed cases of plague in Irkutsk. Russian authorities told the agency that contacts of the deceased had been identified and tested negative for dangerous infectious pathogens. However, it remained unclear from the information released whether plague had been definitively ruled out as the cause of Shipilova’s own death. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed that rapid disclosure was necessary under international health rules. The organization has assessed the risk to the wider population as low, while saying additional information is needed to resolve conflicting reports surrounding the case. Pneumonic plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Unlike bubonic plague, which is usually spread by infected fleas, the pneumonic form affects the lungs and can spread between people through respiratory droplets. It can be fatal if untreated but is curable with antibiotics when identified early. Plague bacteria circulate naturally among wild rodents and fleas in parts of Siberia, although human infections in Russia are rare, Reuters reported. Kyiv Post is Ukraine’s first and oldest English news organization, reporting since 1995. Its international reach – 90% of readers are outside of Ukraine – make it truly Ukraine’s global voice.