The Russian antivirus company Kaspersky Labs has announced it is leaving the United States, following last month's decision by the Biden administration to ban the sale of Kaspersky software over alleged links to the Kremlin. A Kaspersky spokesperson told the BBC it was a "sad and difficult decision" but that "business opportunities in the country are no longer viable".
Announcing the ban last month, US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said that Moscow's alleged influence over Kaspersky was a risk to US infrastructure. "Russia has shown it has the capacity—and even more than that, the intent—to exploit Russian companies like Kaspersky to collect and weaponize the personal information of Americans," said Raimondo. The ban meant Kaspersky would no longer be allowed to sell or provide updates to its software after September 29 and, the day after it was announced, the US Treasury announced sanctions on a dozen Kaspersky executives for good measure, though oddly did not target CEO and co-founder Eugene Kaspersky.
