Trump questions Russian account of plague case, rules out bioweapon link

The U.S. Embassy in Russia has issued an urgent alert advising American citizens to depart immediately from the country, citing reports of a potential plague outbreak in the Irkutsk Region of Siberia. President Donald Trump announced his intention to discuss the matter with Russian President Vladimir Putin "very soon." The European Commission announced that EU nations would meet on October 7 to address the suspected outbreak in Russia.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson confirmed that Moscow and Beijing maintain close communication regarding the prevention and control of infectious diseases, including the plague.

The warning was issued after the death of Darya Shipilova, a laboratory worker at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute, who was reportedly suffering from pneumonic plague. The embassy acknowledged receiving reports of quarantine measures and hospital closures in Irkutsk and strongly cautioned Americans against traveling to Russia due to the risks of wrongful detention and security concerns.

President Trump stated that he would speak with Putin "very soon" and that the United States was engaged in "very deep discussions" regarding the case. The White House did not provide further details on intelligence information related to the suspected death. The European Commission reported that EU countries had scheduled a discussion of the suspected plague outbreak in Russia for October 7, which was added to the Health Security Committee agenda.

China also responded to the reports, with the World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson stating that the WHO was closely monitoring the situation in Russia. He noted that the official cause of death had not been confirmed and that investigations were ongoing. The WHO estimated the risk to be moderate to low for Irkutsk, low for the Russian Federation as a whole, and very low for the European region.

Russian authorities maintained that the epidemiological situation in the region was stable and denied that the employee had died from plague, instead attributing the death to "pneumonia of unknown etiology." However, Russian media outlets began to remove reports of the suspected outbreak, while Central Asian countries tightened sanitary controls at their borders in response to the reports.