A 28-year-old laboratory technician at a Siberian plague research institute died on October 2 after reportedly breaking a test tube containing live bacteria, setting off a quarantine that placed nearly 200 people under medical observation — even as Moscow insisted the situation was entirely under control.
The gap between Russia's official denials and the scale of its containment response is drawing international scrutiny, with the World Health Organization, the White House, and Ukraine's government all demanding greater transparency from the Kremlin.
