Trump Offers Help on Russia’s Plague Case, and the Kremlin Says It Did Not Hear a Problem

Donald Trump said on Tuesday 6 October that a call with Vladimir Putin about the suspected plague case in Siberia is “scheduled” and will come “very soon”. The same day Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov welcomed the offer of help and said he had not heard the American president call the case a major problem for Russia. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking in Iceland, said it was “incumbent upon Russia” to share more information.

The exchange follows the death of Darya Shipilova, a 28-year-old technician at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute, which we reported on 6 October. This article follows what Washington and Moscow have said since.

Trump has twice offered help and now says a call with Putin is coming. Rubio has asked Russia for more information, and Peskov has accepted the offer without accepting the premise. Russia told the World Health Organization that no case of plague has been recorded in Irkutsk, while the WHO describes the risk to the wider population as low.

Trump spoke first, telling reporters on Monday 5 October that the United States was “looking at it very strongly”, called plague “a rough disease” and said Washington was “willing to help”, according to Salon.

On Tuesday 6 October, on the White House South Lawn, he said a call was “scheduled” and would happen “very soon”, NBC News reported.

On the same day, in Reykjavik, Rubio said: “I think it’s incumbent upon Russia to obviously share more information with the world,” according to CBS News. The National reported that he added the United States was watching “hour by hour” and had help available. The CDC said there was “no indication of a broader threat to the United States”, CNBC reported.

On 6 October Peskov told journalists: “It is always very good when mutual assistance is offered,” ABC News reported. Asked about Trump’s view of the case, he said: “To be honest, I did not hear the president’s words that he considers this a major problem for Russia.” ABC said he referred further questions to the health agency.

That agency, Rospotrebnadzor, said the sanitary and epidemiological situation in the Irkutsk region and the cities of Irkutsk and Shelekhov “is stable”, ABC reported. It said no accidents had been detected at the institute. It said tests on contacts found only COVID-19 and rhinovirus.

Moscow first told the WHO that authorities were investigating whether pneumonic plague caused the death. It then said that “no case of this dangerous disease has been recorded in the city of Irkutsk”, The National reported.

Trump’s offer came on Monday. Rubio’s request followed on Tuesday, and Peskov replied the same day, accepting help while saying he had not heard the words “major problem”.

Rubio asked Russia to tell “the world” more. Peskov referred journalists to Rospotrebnadzor, which says the situation is “stable”. ABC reported that State Department health experts had already contacted the Russian Foreign Ministry the previous Friday.

The WHO was first told an investigation into pneumonic plague was under way. It was then told no case had been recorded in Irkutsk. Atlantic Council analysts Isobel Sowells and John O’Brien wrote on 6 October that “Russia’s safety and transparency record gives reason to doubt that the world will get the full story”. In the same piece they recall that Soviet authorities blamed the Sverdlovsk anthrax outbreak on contaminated meat and concealed military responsibility for over a decade.

NBC quoted Trump on 5 October as saying he hated “to see them having it”. Rubio’s request for information came a day later, from a different office. The planned call gives Putin a chance to answer the first without answering the second.

The first marker is the call itself and which side publishes a readout first. A Kremlin readout that mentions assistance would show the offer was taken up.

The second is whether Russia gives the WHO or the CDC test results or a cause of death. The third is Rospotrebnadzor’s own wording, which now says the situation is “stable”.

Russia calls the cause of Shipilova’s death pneumonia of unknown origin, and no public source has confirmed another. Whether Washington’s health experts have received any answer to their contact with the Russian Foreign Ministry has not been reported.