Kaspersky: Yes, we obtained NSA secrets. No, we didn’t help steal them

no offense, it is just very entertaining(and educational) to observe how people from one culture try to apply their mental frameworks to completely different mentality. There is no "whether", "or not", "gag order" (in the sense as if explicit one was necessary) in the Russian reality in the context of private company cooperating with FSB. Hell, there is no even much of "cooperating". An FSB guy just says what he wants to get, and he gets it pronto. And in cases like Kaspersky it is even more straightforward as Kaspersky and the others there are FSB guys.

I mean it is like a joke among Russians here:

"Did you hear? The NSA thinks about stopping to use Kaspersky on their computers!"

"Wow! How did they discovered (the ploy)? Was it the parachute?"

(the parachute is a reference to a very well known joke about a USSR spy in Nazi Germany from very popular TV movie - the spy was so good and invincible that only the deployed parachute he was dragging behind him in the open daylight on the streets of Berlin was the only possible clue for the Nazis)

Again, it is different reality. In US law protects from and punishes for illegal cooperation, whereis in Russia the system protects for cooperation and punishes for refusal to do so.

Why not both?

I don't know about this particular story, but Kaspersky is certainly has strong ties with FSB, FSO and other official structures. I don't mean that it's their main business model — developing anti-virus software pays well enough not to be some cover story — but they're definitely _friendly_ on a deep personal level. Kaspersky himself was educated in KGB school, worked in government structures and has a lot of connections (which he used, for example, with that shady story when his son was kidnapped).

Usually, in Moscow, there is a strong correlation between being a highly educated, well-paid IT professional and having a negative opinion about current Russian regime; but judging from my second-hand stories from friends and colleagues, guys at Kaspersky tend to be very patriotic and pro-government. So, while I don't think that Kaspersky lab was founded deliberately like some sort of cover. But they're the kind of people who would definitely help FSB with whatever they ask — not because of some secret court order, but happily, thinking that they are serving their country and doing a good thing.

No, you can't, except in some abstract sense that loses all meaning.

In the west, it's routine to find wealthy and powerful members of the establishment pursue goals and policies that are directly opposed to the government with both success and failure. And of course these governments change hands relatively commonly.

In Russia, there are no wealthy or powerful people pursuing anything but Putin's agenda. All those who tried have been removed, via various methods ranging from banal to horrifying.

Now I'm sure there are nuts on the internet who will try to claim that the political divisions of the west are "really" just a front for a kleptrocrat cabal or whatever. But in the real world we have one country arresting its enemies and a bunch that don't, and that distinction matters.