MOSCOW, Oct. 7 — Russia followed established procedures by notifying the World Health Organization last week about the death of a laboratory employee at a Siberian plague research institute, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday. He also accused media outlets of spreading inaccurate accounts of the incident.
Peskov was responding to an ABC News report that the United States had filed a formal diplomatic complaint over Russia’s handling of the death and called on Moscow to provide more information about what happened.
The worker became ill and later died under circumstances that have not been disclosed. The case led authorities to quarantine dozens of people and send the head of Russia’s health watchdog to the Irkutsk region.
Peskov rejected much of the reporting about the episode as false, saying the public should rely on updates issued by Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s state consumer and health protection agency.
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The watchdog said Tuesday that tests had found no plague infections among people who had contact with the deceased. Residents also reported that the quarantine measures had caused little disruption to daily life.
Peskov added that no telephone call had yet been arranged between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump said Tuesday that he expected to speak with Putin “very soon” about the incident.
