The Trump administration sent a formal diplomatic message to Russia requesting more information about the reported death linked to a facility in Siberia that studies pneumonic plague and a number of subsequent quarantines, according to U.S. officials.
The request represents an escalation of pressure from Washington and comes amid growing U.S. frustration about the lack of detailed information from Russia after its public health agency reported that a laboratory worker employed at an institute dedicated to studying plague in the Irkutsk region had died after being diagnosed with pneumonia of “unknown” origin.
A formal message from the United States — known as a démarche in diplomatic lingo — seeks to remind Russia that it has obligations under international law to share information about disease outbreaks with other governments in a timely manner, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic matters.
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The State Department said it is also in “official communication with other countries around the world to share information,” the agency said in a statement.
Russian authorities have imposed quarantines on several hospitals in the area, but health officials have downplayed the severity of the situation. There remains no confirmation that the deceased lab worker had contracted pneumonic plague, an airborne variant of the bubonic plague.
The planning for a formal U.S. request came as Secretary of State Marco Rubio said it was “incumbent upon Russia to obviously share more information with the world.” Rubio said at a news conference in Iceland on Monday that it’s “what they should do, and that’s what we hope they will do.”
Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesperson, told reporters Tuesday that Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s health watchdog, was “providing all necessary information” regarding the case.
The concern over the reported death coincides with broader tensions between Washington and Moscow, most significantly over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s continued war in Ukraine despite repeated attempts to broker peace by President Donald Trump and his envoys. The Wall Street Journal first reported that the U.S. was planning a démarche to Russia.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Trump said he was concerned about the reports and noted that “the germs have really become relatively stronger than they were and things that used to work on pneumonia don’t work as well anymore.” The president also said that the U.S. was ready to help Russia with the situation.
A State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to brief the media, said that health experts at the agency had been in touch with the Russian Foreign Ministry as early as Friday.
Russia is obligated to share information about potential outbreaks with the World Health Organization within 24 hours under a 2005 global health agreement known as the International Health Regulations, but it has not done so yet, an official with that body said Tuesday.
“WHO hasn’t yet received a formal notification about this through the IHR channels,” WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier told reporters in Geneva, adding that Russia may still be making an “assessment” on whether the outbreak falls under the “notifiable categories.”
The WHO is ready to support Russia if it asks, but it has not yet received Moscow’s request, Lindmeier said. The WHO also assessed that the risk was “low” for Russia after the reported death and “very low” for the broader European region.
The U.S. formally withdrew from the WHO in January after Trump accused the global health body of “mishandling” the coronavirus pandemic, including early efforts to track its origin in Wuhan, China. Washington has long been the WHO’s largest donor, and its departure has left the organization with a significant cash crunch.
Local officials have suggested they do not need help containing the outbreak, with Elena Sofina, a deputy mayor in the Shelekhov district in Irkutsk, stating Tuesday that 60 percent of patients had already been released from quarantine. “The situation is fully under control,” Sofina said.
