US president Donald Trump said he was scheduled to speak with Russian president Vladimir Putin about the suspected case of pneumonic plague in Siberia “very soon”, as Washington has urged Moscow to share more about the incident.
The US president on Tuesday night said he would speak with his Russian counterpart after US secretary of state Marco Rubio said the White House has received “limited information” on the situation.
Trump on Tuesday declined to provide more information on when the call would take place, but added the US’s intelligence agencies are “in very deep discussions” about the suspected case of the plague. “We’ll be able to report about it probably tomorrow,” he added.
Russia has imposed sweeping quarantine measures in the Siberian region after an employee at Siberia’s Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute was admitted to hospital outside the city a week ago.
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Daria Shipilova (28) died two days later from what public health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor described as “pneumonia of unknown” origin. Local media reported pneumonic plague may have been the cause of death.
Rubio earlier on Tuesday called on Moscow for increased transparency.
“I think it’s incumbent upon Russia to obviously share more information with the world,” he said. “That’s what they should do, that’s what we hope they will do. And the more we can learn about what happened, the better all of us can be in a position of responding.”
“Maybe there’s nothing there, maybe it’s bigger than we thought, we don’t know,” Rubio added. “Suffice it to say we’re watching it very closely.”
The US secretary of state on Monday said it appeared a worker at the Siberian lab was infected, though he added he did not believe the apparent case was “cause for alarm”.
If confirmed, it would be the first case of plague in a decade in Russia, which has insisted there has been no outbreak.
China’s foreign ministry, in response to a question about the suspected case, said it maintained close communication with Russia on disease prevention and control. “China and Russia maintain close exchanges and co-operation on the prevention and control of infectious diseases, including plague,” ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov urged reporters on Monday “not to listen to rumours about a plague outbreak” and to “rely on Rospotrebnadzor’s statement”.
Trump had said Washington would be willing to help Moscow with the situation.
“We’ll help. Anybody that has that kind of a problem, we’re always willing to help,” he said on Monday.
- Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026
