Russia pushes back on plague death reports, defends WHO notification

On Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia informed the World Health Organization about the death of a laboratory worker at a Siberian plague research facility that occurred last week as per standard operating procedures, accusing the media of providing misinformation about the case.

Peskov was mainly commenting on an ABC News report that the United States had registered an official objection over Russia’s handling of the reported death calling on Moscow to provide more transparency about the entire incident.

According to reports, the laboratory worker passed away after a sudden illness, driving authorities to quarantine dozens of people and deploy the head of Russia’s public health watchdog to the Irkutsk region.

Earlier, Peskov asserted that much of the reporting surrounding the incident was false and that people should rely on verified accounts released by state health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor.

The watchdog said that no plague infections have been identified among anyone who had come into contact with the deceased and locals said their lives had hardly changed.

Furthermore, Peskov said there are no immediate plans for a phone consultation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump who said on Tuesday that he would speak to Putin “very soon” or in the near future.