Foreign Affairs

Information Blackouts Mount Amid Rumors Of Lab-Leaked Plague, Russian Media Outlet Reports

lab work photo: Wikimedia Commons/Marta D https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Behind_the_lab_work.jpg

As rumors of a lab-leaked plague in Siberia continue to spread, an independent Russian magazine reported significant information blackouts — removed social media posts, public service announcements and news articles concerning information about the plague allegations.

Following the death of 28-year-old Darya Shipilova — a laboratory research technician working at the Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia — Russian authorities have denied reports that she allegedly died of a pneumonic plague caused by a lab accident.

“The sanitary and epidemiological situation in the Irkutsk region and the cities of Irkutsk and Shelekhov is calm,” Russia’s National Public Health Agency reported in a statement from the department on Telegram.

However, Lyudi Baikala (LB), an online Russian magazine, published a lengthy article on Tuesday that seems to indicate there are serious gaps in the official narrative. The English translation of the Russian headline means, “Is it really the plague!?”

While the Daily Caller News Foundation reports on the Russian outlet’s findings, it has not yet independently confirmed their information as fact.

After she was hospitalized at the Shelekhov District Hospital on Sept. 29 for a severe illness, Shiplova died sometime between Oct. 1 and 2. Her cause of death was labelled as “pneumonia of unspecified etiology,” according to Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s national public health agency. This means that the patient was diagnosed with pneumonia, but doctors were unable to identify the specific microorganism — bacteria, virus or fungus — that caused the illness. Shiplova died from “severe pneumonia,” according to the Independent.

However, though the hospital was immediately placed under quarantine after her death, Governor Igor Kobzev said on Telegram that Shiplova suffered from a “particularly dangerous infection” — and the word “plague” was not mentioned in official statements, according to LB.

Kobzev’s statement echoes language on the lab’s website, the Daily Caller News Foundation previously reported. The website states that the labs works with the “epidemic control for especially dangerous bacterial and virus infections” and studies a range of deadly diseases such as cholera and anthrax, and houses 1840 strains of plague.

Later that day, Anna Popova, Russia’s chief state sanitary doctor, arrived in Irkutsk and met with other government officials, doctors and security forces to approve an “operational action plan,” LB reported.

“Plague was the cause of death confirmed by Buryatia’s head, Alexey Tsydenov,” Ukrainian National News reported, citing a post from the government official on Telegram.

“The woman who died from plague in Irkutsk region did not travel to Buryatia. There are no plague outbreaks in the republic, including in the territory bordering Mongolia. The source of the infection was due to other circumstances unrelated to Buryatia,” the English translation of the post read.

However, Tsydenov edited the post that same day to say the “woman who possibly died of the plague,” according to LB.

“There was no official information about what happened to Darya,” the outlet reported.

On the afternoon of Oct. 2, Irkutsk journalist Pavel Stepanov wrote that Shipilova “broke a test tube containing the same pneumonic plague” and “concealed this fact.”

“This version was widely circulated, but remains unconfirmed,” LB said as rumors continued to circulate online.

That same day, several Russian newspapers reported additional information surrounding Shipilova’s death that were quickly deleted after the fact, according to LB’s findings.

Pro-government newspaper Izvestia published a piece saying that a criminal case had been opened under Part 2 of Article 236 — “Violation of sanitary and epidemiological rules, resulting in the death of a person through negligence,” following Shipilova’s death, according to LB.

“Izvestia soon deleted this article, along with other reports about a possible outbreak of pneumonic plague in Irkutsk,” the outlet claimed.

Another prominent Russian newspaper, Argumenty i Fakty, deleted another story about the death of an Irkutsk lab technician, according to the piece published by LB.

However, LB said that the article, “remained cached in the Yandex search engine.”

The LB report cited a third regional newspaper, MK v Kusbass which deleted a story about Rospotrebnadzor denying the closure of Irkutsk hospitals for quarantine. However the original is cached on the web archive.

LB said that Rospotrebnadzor did not explain its statement about Shipilova dying from “Pneumonia of unspecified etiology” nor did it comment on why hundreds of people were quarantined for pneumonia.

Not only did the Russian media remove their news reports, but public service announcements from official government bodies also disappeared on Oct. 2, according to the outlet.

“On the morning of October 3, the Baikalsk administration advised local residents to temporarily avoid traveling to Shelekhov due to “unofficial information” about the plague being detected there,” LB reported. “Two hours later, city authorities removed the post.”

On Oct. 4, management of the Irkutsk Aluminum Smelter also introduced a mask mandate on its premises, in a Telegram post.

“Contradictory information about the plague situation is spreading in Shelekhov,” commented Director Artem Fominykh, according to LB.

Fominykh than published an edited Telegram post on Oct. 4 saying “the mask mandate at Irkutsk Aluminum Smelter is not related to the quarantine at the Shelekhov hospital,” but is due to the increase in acute respiratory viral infections.

“All our employees know this isn’t the first time, and we periodically introduce masks based on the seasonality of respiratory illnesses,” the plant director wrote, calling for “no rumors.”

LB found that Kobzev wrote on his Telegram channel about a forum for working youth and a meeting with the head of Roszdravnadzor but “not a word about the supposed plague or the talk of the town,” was mentioned.

At time of this publication, President Donald Trump announced that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin planned a phone call to discuss the plague allegations. Trump previously made a statement on Monday that the United States was ready to assist Russia in connection with the suspected outbreak of pneumonic plague.

Russian authorities “assure that there is no plague in the region and hospitals are operating as usual, but quarantine measures remain in place,” LB reported.