The Kremlin has long maintained a culture of secrecy when it comes to controlling public information, especially involving accidents -- from industrial disasters to health emergencies. The suspicious death last week of a worker at a research lab in Siberia that has fueled global concerns about suspected pneumonic plague is just the latest example of how leaders in Moscow manage the official narrative that can often cover up the truth for years. Scarce official information about the death, which unconfirmed reports in Russia blamed on pneumonic plague, follows Soviet-era patterns of secrecy in dealing with infectious diseases and other emergencies.