The decision by the United States to ban Moscow’s cybersecurity firm Kaspersky over security concerns has drawn criticism from the Kremlin, labeling it as creating “unfair competition” for American companies.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov emphasized that Kaspersky Lab is highly competitive internationally and condemned the US ban as a method of unfair competition that the US frequently employs.
The US Commerce Department stated that Russia had utilized Kaspersky to “collect and weaponize sensitive US information.” Additionally, the US not only prohibited the sale of Kaspersky’s antivirus software but also placed three entities linked to the firm on a list of companies posing national security risks.
Kaspersky, headquartered in Moscow with offices in 31 countries and serving millions of users, now faces these challenges in the wake of the US ban.
