US issues formal request for information from Russia over potential plague fallout

US issues formal request for information from Russia over potential plague fallout.

The Trump administration is struggling to get clear answers about the death of a Russian laboratory worker at an institute dedicated to studying the plague and has formally escalated its request for information from the country, amid days of stonewalling from Russian officials about the mysterious circumstances surrounding the episode.

The death of the technician at the Irkutsk Research Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia immediately raised alarms throughout the administration, prompting a race to compile intel and plot for a potential public health response, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

But Russia’s reluctance to share information about the incident has complicated those efforts, leaving officials uncertain what broader risks it could pose — and how exactly to defend the US against them.

The US escalated its request for information, issuing a formal diplomatic communication, called a démarche, a source familiar told CNN late Tuesday.

“We have officially requested additional information from the Russian government,” a State Department spokesperson said. “We are also in official communication with other countries around the world to share information.”

“It’s incumbent upon Russia to obviously share more information with the world,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier Tuesday. “Maybe it’s bigger than we thought. We don’t know, but I think it would be reckless at this moment, given the limited information we still have, to speculate.”

US officials were in touch with the Russian government as early as last Friday, a State Department official said, including contact between the department’s health experts and the Russian Foreign Ministry. And that outreach has continued, an administration official said, as Rubio expressed hope Tuesday that the limited information sharing “will change in the next few hours and days.”