President Donald Trump said Wednesday that evidence is lacking to suspect the reported outbreak of pandemic plague in Russia is a biological weapon; however, he said Washington is pressing Moscow for more information.
At the White House, a reporter asked him whether he has reason to believe the disease could be a bioweapon. Trump said, “We don’t think so. We’re going to find out.”
“If you listen to them, it’s under control. We hope it is,” the U.S. president said, referring to Russian assurance that the situation was under control.
To discuss the key matter of the suspected outbreak of disease, Trump said a call is planned with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
But Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said no such arrangements are in place.
Trump remarks come following the death of a female employee at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East, which triggered alarm bells in several countries’ capitals, including Washington.
Calls for greater transparency were made after alleged stonewalling by Russian authorities on the situation on the ground, which, however, the officials of the country denied no plague was detected among those tested who were around the woman who died.
