US Urges Russia to Disclose Plague Incident Details... Some Suspect Biological Weapons

The U.S. administration under President Donald Trump has called on Russia to release more information regarding the suspected leak of plague pathogens from a Russian laboratory.

On the 6th (local time), U.S. Secretary of State Mark Rubio held a press conference during his visit to Iceland and stated, "It is irresponsible to speculate without having confirmed all of the facts," adding, "I firmly believe Russia has a clear obligation to share more information with the world."

On the 6th (local time), U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is boarding a plane at Keflavik Airport in Iceland. Keflavik (Iceland) = AP Yonhap News Agency

He further commented, "The more we know about what happened, the better we can respond. It might turn out to be nothing serious, or it could be a bigger issue than we initially thought."

Secretary Rubio continued, "If the situation is worse than what has been made public so far, we already have measures in place to respond," and added, "We are closely monitoring the situation on an hourly basis."

He emphasized, "We urge Russia to act transparently by sharing more information with the world so that we can respond properly," while also noting, "Information has been quite limited so far, but I hope the situation changes in the next few hours or days."

The incident occurred on September 25. At the Irkutsk Plague Control Research Institute in Russia, a female researcher accidentally broke a test tube containing plague pathogens. She was hospitalized on the 29th of the same month with severe pneumonia symptoms and died between October 1 and 2.

Local media reported that nearly 200 people at the hospital where the deceased researcher was admitted were designated as persons under quarantine observation. It was also reported that a maternity hospital in the city has been placed under quarantine.

Before his departure for Iceland the previous day, Secretary Rubio said, "We are closely watching and monitoring the situation. It is not something to be alarmed about, but it is important to pay attention and continue to monitor." However, on this day, he criticized Russia's lack of information-sharing.

Previously, the Washington Post (WP) reported that not only Secretary Rubio but also other U.S. officials have warned that there is still much unknown about the incident, and that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), State Department, Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), and other agencies are working to uncover the details of the case.

The U.S. media outlet Axios also highlighted the importance of determining whether this incident resulted from Russia’s legitimate plague research or originated from a biological weapons development program.

Currently, there is no evidence indicating that the deceased researcher was involved in research on weaponized or genetically engineered pathogens. Some reports state that the researcher had recently visited the Russian-Mongolian border, where plague occurs naturally among animals.

On the other hand, Axios reported that according to the U.S. think tank James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, the Russian military authorities have already developed vaccines and diagnostic methods for the genetically altered pathogens at the research institute in question.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.