RFK Jr.’s Secret Link to Russia’s Killer Plague Lab Revealed

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/Reuters Robert F.

Kennedy Jr.’s department funneled nearly $800,000 into a research project tied to a Russian lab at the center of a chilling plague mystery.

Federal records obtained by the watchdog group White Coat Waste show that the latest grants landed just weeks ago, just before the death of a worker at the Siberian facility sparked widespread panic.

According to the group, the Kennedy-run National Institutes of Health awarded $779,689 to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for research conducted in partnership with Russia’s state-run Institute of Cytology and Genetics.

But the Russian institute has previously collaborated on plague research with the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute, the Siberian facility now under international scrutiny after the death of 28-year-old researcher Darya Shipilova.

Shipilova reportedly fell ill after a Sept.

25 laboratory incident involving a broken test tube.

She subsequently died of what Russian authorities identified as “pneumonia of unknown etiology,” while some local reports claimed she had been ill with pneumonic plague.

Authorities placed nearly 200 people in quarantine immediately after her death.

Russian authorities have insisted that testing found no dangerous pathogens connected to her work.

But the mysterious circumstances have triggered international concern, with the U.S and World Health Organization formally demanding more information from Moscow to establish what happened.

Outside the White House on Tuesday, Trump told reporters he “has a call scheduled for very soon” with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the matter.

NIH is part of Kennedy’s Department of Health and Human Services.

According to White Coat Lab, the NIH grants came in two chunks: $389,943 in July 2025 and another $389,746 in September 2026.