‘Unfair competition’
Kaspersky said in a statement on Thursday that it will “pursue all legally available options to preserve its current operations and relationships”, adding that it “does not engage in activities which threaten US national security”.
The Kremlin has criticised the US decision to ban Kaspersky’s antivirus software as a way to remove competition for American companies.
“Kaspersky Lab is a company which is very, very competitive on the international level,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Friday. “This is a favourite method of unfair competition from the part of the United States. They resort to such tactics every time.”
US Department of State spokesperson Matthew Miller, however, said the company was subject to the “jurisdiction, control or direction of the Russian government, which could exploit the privileged access to obtain sensitive data”.
