The call would be about the October 2 death of Darya Shipilova, a 28-year-old employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute, more than 2,500 miles east of Moscow. Russian authorities have attributed her death only to "pneumonia of unknown origin," an explanation that has satisfied almost no one watching. Nearly 200 of her contacts were placed under medical observation as health officials scrambled to rule out the worst case.
Trump moved first. On Monday he offered American help to Russia, calling plague "a rough disease." On Tuesday night he told reporters he had a call with Putin in the works and expected it "very soon," adding that U.S. officials were in "very deep discussions" on the matter and would report back within a day. On Wednesday, Moscow confirmed it was open to arranging the conversation — though Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov cautioned that no call had been formally scheduled yet, while noting one could be set up quickly.
The administration has been pressing hard for answers. Secretary of State Marco Rubio publicly called on Moscow to be more transparent. The State Department sent a formal diplomatic message warning that withholding health information runs against international obligations, and the U.S. Embassy in Moscow has been engaging Russian authorities directly. The CDC says it is working across the government to assess developments as more information comes in.
Russia's health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, has been working to calm nerves. It says roughly 200 people were screened for contact with Shipilova, no plague was found among them, and 90 percent of those quarantined have been released. Its testing did turn up two COVID-19 cases and two rhinovirus infections — but, it stressed, no plague. The World Health Organization, which is in contact with Russian authorities, assesses the risk as very low outside Russia.
What actually killed the young lab worker remains the open question. Unconfirmed Russian media reports have suggested she may have broken a test tube containing a pathogen days before falling ill; another account points to a field trip in an area where plague occurs naturally in wild rodents. Moscow has denied imposing anti-plague measures and says postmortem tests detected no plague — while also deflecting, with Russian officials pointing reporters toward America's own measles situation instead.
The timing adds another layer. The administration faces an October 18 deadline to decide which Russian entities, if any, it will sanction under the Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act that Trump signed on September 18, with Ukraine already handing Congress a wish list of targets. A leader-to-leader call on a health scare, in that context, is also a channel both sides may want open for bigger business.