plaguetracker.com evidence snapshot v1
url: https://www.the-sun.com/news/17131628/mystery-russia-plague-cover-up/
captured_at: 2026-10-12T09:48:03.480Z
title: Mystery over Russian plague ‘cover-up’ as dead scientist’s family ‘gagged’ in information ‘blackout’

FEARS are growing that the family of the Russian scientist who died of a suspected plague infection has been gagged as rumours of a Kremlin cover-up swirl. 

Scientist Daria Shipolova, 28, died of suspected plague ten days ago – but the repressive Russian state seems to have imposed an information blackout over her funeral.

Daria Shipilova, 28, died from a suspected plague infection Credit: East2West

Hospitals have faced quarantine measures and a Covid-style clampdown Credit: East2West

Panic broke out following news of her death, reportedly after smashing a test tube in the remote Siberian lab she worked in, emerged last week. 

It is not known if the scientist has been buried yet. 

			
							
											
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Nor has it been made public whether Shipilova will be buried in a zinc coffin to stop the spread of disease, or cremated. 

Her heartbroken mum spoke out last week, saying they “let her daughter die”. 
		
			
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Shipilova’s grieving mother, Svetlana, said the 28-year-old researcher had not been buried – because she and other relatives remained locked in quarantine.

Svetlana, who is a doctor, accused medics of “abandoning” her daughter.

She told local media: “I’ve saved plenty of patients, yet they couldn’t save my daughter. They simply let my daughter die.”

Four days after Daria’s tragic death, Svetlana said she was still waiting for answers.

		
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Daria is reported to have broken a test tube before she fell ill Credit: East2West

She was a laboratory assistant at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute in Irkutsk Credit: East2West

She said: “I’m waiting for it to become official. It has to be an official document. It’s very hard for me right now. This whole spectacle drags on.”

But since then, Svetlana has suddenly gone quiet, sparking fears she has been silenced. 

Russian outlets said they had contacted other members of the scientist’s family, but they had been too afraid to speak. 

A source said: “It appears the scientist’s family is under pressure not to voice their concerns over her death.”

Daria fell ill after reportedly dropping and breaking a test tube containing plague bacteria at a research institute in Irkutsk, Siberia.

She is said to have been working with Yersinia pestis, the bacteria behind plague and the medieval Black Death.

Daria become unwell during a research expedition in Buryatia, on Russia’s eastern frontier with Mongolia, to study plague-infested squirrels before being placed on a ventilator on September 29.

The scientist later died in hospital from what Russian officials described only as “pneumonia of unknown aetiology”.

Russia denied that there was an accident involving dangerous pathogens at the laboratory and the Kremlin remains tight-lipped over exactly what killed Daria.

But hundreds of people are under medical observation and hospitals have been shut down for weeks following the mysterious death.

The US embassy in Russia warned Americans about the threat of plague and urged them to leave the territory “immediately”.

Hundreds were quarantined, hospitals were shut down and public events were cancelled in the Eastern European country.
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And the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced last week that it was probing reports of a second case. 

	

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