NEIL MACFARQUHAR2026年10月9日周三，位于俄罗斯伊尔库茨克的西伯利亚与远东伊尔库茨克抗鼠疫研究所。死亡的研究人员生前曾在该实验室工作。 Associated PressAs rumors swirled this week that a woman working in a Siberian lab may have died of the plague, news programs on Russian state television paid scant attention. The authorities in Moscow released little information.本周，有传闻称一名在西伯利亚实验室工作的女性可能死于鼠疫，但俄罗斯国家电视台的新闻节目对此鲜有关注，莫斯科当局也几乎没有发布信息。Faced with this potential new threat, the Kremlin seems to be resorting to a familiar playbook: avoiding bad news.面对这一潜在的新威胁，克里姆林宫似乎正诉诸一种惯用策略：回避坏消息。The lack of information has caused unease around the world, particularly given the memory of China’s effort to withhold information about Covid-19.信息的匮乏已在全球引发不安，尤其是考虑到人们尚未遗忘中国此前隐瞒新冠疫情相关信息的记忆。The Kremlin has a history of hiding bad news克里姆林宫有隐瞒坏消息的历史In Russia, federal officials are generally reluctant, even fearful, about publishing anything that might cast the Kremlin in a negative light. The pace of news in Russia tends to be determined by the government, not by when events actually occur. The independent press has been driven into exile.在俄罗斯，联邦官员通常不愿、甚至害怕发布任何可能让克里姆林宫显得负面的内容。俄罗斯的新闻发布时间点往往由政府决定，而非事件实际发生的时间。独立媒体已被迫流亡。Perhaps the most notorious case was the hidden news that an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in April 1986 had contaminated a wide area with dangerous radiation. The Kremlin began to release information only after Sweden and other European countries, alarmed by high radiation readings, demanded an explanation.最臭名昭著的案例或许是1986年4月切尔诺贝利核电站爆炸的消息被隐瞒，该事故导致大片地区被危险辐射污染。直到瑞典和其他欧洲国家注意到高辐射读数并要求解释后，克里姆林宫才开始发布信息。In 1979, there was an accidental leak of anthrax spores from a secret biological weapon facility run by the Soviet military near what is now Yekaterinburg. Someone turned on a machine that dried the spores without realizing that a maintenance technician had removed a clogged exhaust filter.1979年，在现叶卡捷琳堡附近，苏联军方控制的一个秘密生物武器设施意外泄漏了炭疽孢子。有人启动了一台干燥孢子的机器，却未意识到一名维修技术员已拆除了堵塞的排气过滤器。More than 60 people died, as well as countless farm animals downwind of the facility. The Soviet authorities blamed the human toll on tainted meat, and the truth did not emerge until 1992, after the Soviet Union collapsed.超过60人死亡，设施下风处还有无数农场动物死亡。苏联当局将死亡归咎于受污染的肉类，真相直到1992年苏联解体后才浮出水面。But the obfuscation did not stop, especially after Vladimir V. Putin became president in 2000.但混淆视听的做法并未停止，尤其是在弗拉基米尔·V·普京于2000年就任总统之后。In two of the most tragic episodes, the government either concealed the truth or promoted outright falsehoods. One was the sinking of the Kursk nuclear-powered submarine in the Barents Sea in 2000, with all 118 sailors aboard killed. In 2002, Chechen terrorists took over 900 people hostage during a performance of the “Nord-Ost” musical. Interior Ministry special forces knocked everybody out by pumping a chemical agent into the theater. But they failed to coordinate with the medical services, leading to the deaths of at least 116 hostages, as well as all 41 attackers.在两起最悲惨的事件中，政府要么隐瞒真相，要么散布彻头彻尾的谎言。一是2000年巴伦支海库尔斯克号核潜艇沉没，船上118名水兵全部遇难。另一起发生在2002年，车臣恐怖分子在音乐剧《东北》演出期间劫持了900多人。内政部特种部队向剧院泵入化学剂致所有人昏迷，却未能与医疗服务部门协调，导致至少116名人质和全部41名袭击者死亡。Since Russian forces mounted a large-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, there have been examples of the government’s effort to camouflage the true scope of the war.自2022年俄军大规模入侵乌克兰以来，已出现政府试图掩盖战争真实规模的例子。Earlier this year, when a bomb exploded in a Moscow restaurant where a top Russian general was celebrating, Russian state news initially reported it as a gas canister explosion. The Kremlin has resorted to extensive censorship to hide Russian losses in its war in Ukraine — which the government made illegal to call a war. Independent researchers have estimated that 450,000 Russian soldiers have died.今年早些时候，一枚炸弹在莫斯科一家餐厅爆炸，当时一名俄罗斯高级将领正在那里庆祝，俄罗斯国家新闻最初将其报道为煤气罐爆炸。克里姆林宫已诉诸广泛审查来掩盖俄罗斯在乌克兰战争中的损失——将这场战争称为战争是违法行为。独立研究人员估计，已有45万名俄罗斯士兵丧生。Russia’s press is full of disinformation俄罗斯媒体充斥虚假信息Although several state-run newspapers initially ran articles about the death in Siberia, the news disappeared from their websites.尽管几家国有报纸最初刊登了关于西伯利亚死亡事件的文章，但相关新闻随后从它们的网站上消失了。Alexandra Arkhipova, a Russian anthropologist in exile, wrote on social media, “Instead of a straightforward description of what is happening in Irkutsk, news columns are filled with journalistic euphemisms — clearly by order from above.”流亡的俄罗斯人类学家亚历山德拉·阿尔希波娃在社交媒体上写道：“新闻专栏没有直接描述伊尔库茨克正在发生的事情，而是充斥着新闻委婉语——显然是奉上面之命。”There is no mention of plague, she added, only headlines about the “Irkutsk infection,” referring to the region of Siberia where the woman, who was 28, died.她补充说，报道没有提到鼠疫，只有关于“伊尔库茨克感染”的标题，指的是这名28岁死亡女性所在的西伯利亚地区。Local social media accounts are full of questions and concerns about the case, although the occasional comment reflects the official line that people should rely on government statements.当地社交媒体账户充满了对此案的疑问和担忧，尽管偶尔有评论反映官方立场，即人们应相信政府声明。Alyona, reached via social media and identified by only one name to avoid retribution from the authorities, said she was an old school friend of the victim but had not been in touch for a long time. “Everyone is worried, especially since there have been no clear statements,” she said.为免遭当局报复，通过社交媒体联系的阿廖娜只使用一个名字。她说自己是受害者的老同学，但已很久没有联系。“每个人都很担心，尤其是因为一直没有明确的声明，”她说。The mystery surrounding the death in Irkutsk deepened because the governor of a neighboring region had initially posted on social media that the woman had died of the plague, and then changed it later to say that she had “possibly” died of the plague.围绕伊尔库茨克死亡事件的神秘感加深，因为邻近地区的州长最初在社交媒体上发帖称该女性死于鼠疫，后来改口说她“可能”死于鼠疫。Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, criticized the news media for reporting rumors rather than relying on official reports from the public health safety agency. Even though the agency’s head, a doctor, flew to Irkutsk to assess the situation, it avoids news conferences, communicating only by intermittent press releases.克里姆林宫发言人德米特里·S·佩斯科夫批评新闻媒体报道谣言，而非依赖公共卫生安全机构的官方报告。该机构负责人是一名医生，已飞往伊尔库茨克评估情况，但该机构避免新闻发布会，仅通过间歇性新闻稿与公众沟通。Russia’s public health agency has said the pathogen that killed the woman was not the one she had been researching in the lab, for which she had been vaccinated.俄罗斯公共卫生机构表示，导致该女性死亡的病原体并非她在实验室研究的那个，她已接种后者的疫苗。On Thursday, the governor of Irkutsk, Igor Kobzev, who has been posting regularly on his social media channels, wrote that all preventive measures had been completed and after about 5,000 laboratory tests, nobody else the victim might have been in contact with at the institute or the hospital was infected. “Amid intense media scrutiny, the specialists thoroughly investigated the situation,” he wrote. “It was a test, but we passed it in worthy fashion.”周四，伊尔库茨克州长伊戈尔·科布泽夫一直在其社交媒体频道上定期发帖。他写道，所有预防措施已完成，经过约5000次实验室检测，受害者在研究所或医院可能接触过的其他人都未感染。“在媒体密集审视下，专家们彻底调查了情况，”他写道。“这是一次考验，但我们体面地通过了。”His post attracted comments from area residents asking for a clearer explanation of what exactly had happened and what had killed the woman.他的帖子引来当地居民评论，要求更清楚地解释到底发生了什么，以及是什么导致该女性死亡。Trust is low post-Covid新冠疫情后信任度低Russian officials have said the lab worker in Siberia died from pneumonia, of an unknown cause, on Friday night. Although the World Health Organization sent an initial query, the Russian authorities did not provide an answer in the required 24 hours, but three days later, the organization said.俄罗斯官员表示，西伯利亚的实验室工作人员于周五晚上死于不明原因的肺炎。世界卫生组织发出了初步的询问，但该组织称，俄罗斯当局未在规定24小时内答复，而是三天后才答复。世界卫生组织流行病和大流行病管理主任玛丽亚·范克尔克霍夫。谈及对西伯利亚死亡事件的担忧，她说：“新冠肯定在每个人的脑海里。”The W.H.O. said Russia had not yet provided the details needed to make a formal “risk assessment” about the disease’s possible spread. Senior officials in both the E.U. and the United States, including President Trump and Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, all encouraged Russia to provide more information.世卫组织表示，俄罗斯尚未提供必要细节以进行正式“风险评估”，判断该疾病可能传播的风险。特朗普总统、国务卿鲁比奥及欧盟和美国高级官员都敦促俄罗斯提供更多信息。From 2019 to 2025, 10 countries reported almost 4,000 plague cases and 423 deaths, according to W.H.O. statistics. The United States reports about seven cases annually — the most recent was a woman in her 50s who died in June in New Mexico. Plague can be successfully treated with antibiotics if caught early.据世卫组织统计，2019年至2025年，10个国家报告了近4000例鼠疫病例和423例死亡。美国每年报告约七例——最近一例是一名50多岁的女性，于6月在新墨西哥州死亡。如果及早发现，鼠疫可通过抗生素成功治疗。Wrestling with the Covid pandemic, which completely disrupted ordinary life, left a legacy of mistrust toward public health agencies and their ability to protect people.新冠疫情完全扰乱了人们的正常生活，也给公共卫生机构及其保护人民的能力留下了不信任的阴影。At a news conference on Wednesday, Maria Van Kerkhove, director of epidemic and pandemic management at the W.H.O., said, “Covid is certainly in the back of everybody’s mind.”在周三的新闻发布会上，世卫组织流行病和大流行病管理主任玛丽亚·范克尔克霍夫说：“新冠肯定在每个人的脑海里。”“If this individual did not die from the plague, then how did she die?” Dr. Van Kerkhove asked, adding, “We expect further answers from Russia.”“如果这个人不是死于鼠疫，那她是怎么死的？”范克尔克霍夫问道。“我们期待俄罗斯给出进一步答案，”她还说。Alina Lobzina、Ivan Nechepurenko、Paul Sonne和Milana Mazaeva对本文有报道贡献。Neil MacFarquhar自1995年以来一直担任时报记者，撰写从战争到政治、艺术等一系列议题，报道范围既涵盖美国也包括国际议题。翻译：经雷点击查看本文英文版。