Fears of a pneumonic plague outbreak following the death of a Siberian plague research institute employee don't bode well for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is facing a faltering economy and a stalled war in Ukraine that has claimed estimated hundreds of thousands of Russian lives, experts say. Putin has for years maintained a tight grip on power, and while a single lab death isn't an immediate regime-killer, suppressed biological incidents—much like the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster or the Soviet-Afghan War—add to the compounding list of systemic failures in Moscow, retired CIA officer Dan Hoffman told Fox News Digital. "The longer-term strategic question is, does this have an impact on Vladimir Putin and his hold on the Kremlin until his own people realize: 'This just isn't right for us.
We don't like the war in Ukraine. This is just another thing,'" Hoffman told Fox News Digital. RUSSIAN STATE ECONOMIST FIRED AFTER STARK WARNING ABOUT MOSCOW’S ECONOMIC FUTURE "The reason why the Soviet Union collapsed wasn't because of Chernobyl, but that was a part of it," he added.
"It was it a failed economy? Well, they kind of got that going too. The failed war in Afghanistan?
Well, that war in Ukraine doesn't look too good. So all these things just pile up on Putin." The researcher who died has been identified as 28-year-old Darya Shipilova, who worked at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East. There was no evidence that her illness was caused by pathogens linked to her work, Russian health authorities said.
Shipilova died after being diagnosed with a pneumonia of "unknown" origin, authorities have said. GABBARD SAYS DECLASSIFIED BIOLAB RECORDS VALIDATE CONCERNS PREVIOUSLY DISMISSED AS MISINFORMATION On Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States was "watching and monitoring" the situation closely. Anna Popova, the head of Russia's Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare, or the Rospotrebnadzor, which handles infectious disease, arrived at the research lab.
"No micro-organisms associated with the employee’s professional duties were detected in samples taken from the patient," the agency said. Even if Shipilova's death is an isolated incident, Russia's history of hiding information related to sensitive matters could leave many outside observers with doubts, Hoffman said. GORDON SONDLAND: THE GODFATHER TEST -- HOW PUTIN TURNS EVERY ATTACK INTO A MYSTERY—AND GETS AWAY WITH IT "Putin, you know, is a dictator and he's got pretty strict control over information, so they're obviously not going to release any truth to the public, and that means we have to rely on intelligence to understand what's going on behind the scenes," he said.
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