Rubio urges Russia to be transparent over plague incident

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged Russia on Tuesday to provide full transparency and share detailed information with the international community regarding a fatal biological laboratory incident in Siberia.

“I think it’s incumbent upon Russia to obviously share more information with the world,” Rubio told reporters during a joint news conference with Icelandic Foreign Minister Thorgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdottir in Reykjavik. “That’s what they should do. That’s what we hope they will do.”

Rubio emphasized that whenever an infection occurs inside a specialized facility anywhere in the world, concerns naturally arise, pointing to lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, he cautioned against drawing unsubstantiated conclusions about whether the incident involved an intentionally altered pathogen. He said it would be “reckless” to speculate without comprehensive facts, adding that the US could not determine whether the situation represented a minor occurrence or something broader.

Rubio said multiple domestic and international agencies were tracking developments “hour by hour” to ensure partner governments could respond appropriately once verified information became available.

The diplomatic appeal followed reports that a 28-year-old female researcher at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute died after contracting “pneumonia of unknown etiology,” Russian state news agency Tass reported.

While local outlets alleged that the death stemmed from accidental laboratory exposure that prompted hospital quarantines and factory mask rules in nearby Shelekhov, Russian consumer safety watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said the epidemiological situation remained stable.

US President Donald Trump said Monday that Washington was closely following the situation and remained prepared to assist Moscow. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov welcomed the gesture, saying mutual offers of aid were always positive.