KL is a credible shop, they basically founded the modern anti-malware industry and pioneered most basic techniques in the 90's and early 2000's, together with some of their then-rivals like Dr. Web. There's a reason they were trusted, and there's a reason they tried to deny their takeover, they have a genuinely earned reputation.
This doesn't mean they aren't a FSB branch, in the same way e.g. NSO Group is a Mossad branch, with one difference that KL sell themselves as defensive and NSO Group doesn't. It was confirmed by KL employees in their socials that the management has been largely taken over by actual FSB officers. Some have left the company out of protest because they felt it's getting raided (отжим in Russia is not like your usual corporate takeover...). It's impossible to link it now as most of these people are living abroad since 2022 or earlier and either removed all their stuff or their socials entirely, some have renounced their citizenship by this point. But as a general rule, assume every important business in Russia is taken over by the government since 2022, either directly or indirectly. In 2026, whitewashing Kaspersky Labs of all companies is weird.
>But then in February of that year they posted a detailed writeup on malware created by the Equation Group, the NSA. [1] Within a month US media outlets, relying on anonymous sources, began posting endless claims that Kaspersky was a part of the Russian government
There was also a war happening, which you aren't saying.
>Over the next years Kaspersky opened a bunch of 'transparency centers' offering full code audits and inspection, relocated their core infrastructure and customer data to Switzerland - subsequently falling under their data regulations
The audits are to check the checkboxes, they mean very little. Plenty of former Russian companies that moved abroad are keeping ties with the developers at home, despite all audits, fronting campaigns, and otherwise pretending they aren't (not all though, others did actually migrate).
>if they were in any way affiliated with the Russian (or any) government
I mean, YK himself is KGB and there are no former ones, as they say. KL is one of the main government cybersec contractors, for starters. In a country where the government controls most of the economy they are producing critical industrial security systems like data diodes and secure gateways with their own OS, you can go to their site and look at all this yourself.
Cybersec industry in general is heavily affiliated with their respective governments, I don't think it's a secret for anyone and denying this is just silly. Some of them are more than others.
>there seems no logical reason they'd publicly share their findings of the NSA malware ... Their data would be vastly more valuable if kept secret, because it'd open the door to greater exploitation of US cyber activities and being able to covertly secure desired systems.
What? This doesn't make any sense, sorry. Security agencies usually publish or leak actions of their adversaries.
>Instead their actions benefited everybody
Did their inaction benefited anyone? RuNet which has been great got basically destroyed and turned into a safe haven for half of world's cybercriminals on their proud watch, and they aren't writing anything on this. They serve as part of their "roof".
Note I'm not saying they aren't doing good things, you're right, it's pretty good when the spooks keep each other and cybercriminals in check, see the article in OP, Apple's hardware backdoors (Operation Triangulation), and many other cases.