Russia says it’s open to a Trump-Putin call as questions mount over plague lab death

October 7, 2026 / 1:22 PM EDT / CBS News

Russia's government said Wednesday that it was open to "promptly" scheduling a phone call between Presidents Trump and Vladimir Putin to discuss the still-unexplained death of a plague research center employee, but that nothing had been scheduled yet.

Mr. Trump told reporters Tuesday night that he expected to speak with Putin "very soon" about the Oct. 2 death of the Siberian lab worker, after Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on Moscow to be more transparent about the incident and to "share more information with the world."

A State Department spokesperson later told CBS News the U.S. Embassy in Moscow had "engaged Russian authorities about the reported death" and "asked for additional information," which it encouraged Russia to share "quickly and transparently."

So far, Russian authorities have only offered "pneumonia of unknown origin" as the cause of Darya Shipilova's death. Shipilova, 28, worked at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute, more than 2,500 miles east of Moscow, and initial Russian media reports – some of which were quickly taken down – suggested she had contracted the pneumonic plague after a lab accident and died of the disease.

The United Nations World Health…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/healthwatch/