Russian Plague Institute Long Worked With China

The Russian anti-plague research institute, where a lab worker recently succumbed to an unknown form of pneumonia, has worked for many years with various Chinese institutions.

The Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute has come under scrutiny after initial local reports, based on anonymous sources, alleged the researcher may have been infected with pneumonic plague during a lab accident.

Russian authorities denied the reports, saying their investigation showed no connection to the woman’s job and no spread of any virus that may have caused her death, which they attributed to pneumonia of unknown etiology.

The institute, located in Siberia around 150 miles from the Russia–Mongolia border, has long cooperated with Chinese infectious disease researchers and authorities. In August, its director, Sergey Balakhonov, gave a speech at the 2026 China–Russia Joint Emergency Drill for Cross‑border Infectious Disease Epidemics in Fuyuan City at the China-Russia border.

China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Northern Theater Command Disease Control Center took part in the drill, Chinese state-run media reported.

The event followed the first joint Russian–Chinese exercises on responding to infectious disease threats, held in Khabarovsk in June.

Later in October, the institute will also host Chinese delegates at a conference titled “Modern Challenges in Sanitary Protection of Territories Against the Importation and Spread of Plague and Other Dangerous Infectious Diseases.” A similar conference was held in 2024.

In 2017, Balakhonov, his chief researcher D.B. Verzhutsky, and other staff participated in talks in Beijing on Russian–Chinese cooperation in controlling plague and other infections. Li Xinshi, then-president of the Chinese Academy of Inspection and Quarantine, represented the Chinese side during discussions, according to the Institute’s website.

In 2014, Balakhonov also gave presentations at a conference in Harbin on Russian–Chinese exchanges regarding sanitation and quarantine.

In recent years, Russia and China “have built increasingly institutionalized mechanisms for biological security, pathogen research, and epidemic early warning,” said an Oct. 6 report by The Jamestown Foundation, a Washington-based think tank.

“The resulting system is ambiguously civilian and military and is spreading beyond the bilateral relationship.”

The report noted that “Russian authorities have mounted an unusually large containment operation” after the death of the researcher, 28-year-old Daria Shipilova, “while issuing shifting accounts” of what happened.

The incident “has exposed an unusual gap between extensive bilateral preparedness and public communication,” it said, noting that Beijing issued no public health warning or travel advisory.

“Beijing’s silence is particularly incongruous because the incident occurred during the late summer and early autumn plague surveillance season along [China’s] northern border, when disease control authorities routinely intensify monitoring of rodent populations and vectors, alongside health screening of incoming passengers,” it said.

On Sept. 29, the day Shipilova was hospitalized, the 26th China–Russia Health Cooperation Subcommittee held a videoconference with the Chinese National Disease Control and Prevention Administration to talk about infectious disease prevention and disaster medicine.

China–Russia cooperation in the infectious disease and biosecurity domain stems directly from statements by their leaders, Xi Jinping and Valdimir Putin, who in a 2021 statement “called for expanded cooperation on infectious disease early warning and response, pharmaceuticals, diagnostic reagents, and vaccines,” the report said.

They issued a joint statement that included similar commitments in 2024.

The militaries of both countries have been cooperating in the biosecurity domain, including through joint drills, talks, and supply provisions, according to the report.

U.S. government officials have expressed concern over the incident and asked for more transparency.

“I think it’s incumbent upon Russia to obviously share more information with the world. That’s what they should do,” said U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Oct. 6.

President Donald Trump has offered help to Russia in response to the situation surrounding the lab worker’s death.

“Anybody that has that kind of a problem, we’re always willing to help,” Trump told reporters on Oct. 5.

Plague, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, occurs naturally in rodents in the far eastern Siberian region. Pneumonic plague is a particularly virulent form of the disease that can spread from person to person and leads to death within days unless rapidly treated with antibiotics.