according to Kaspersky Lab, as the company recruited senior managers in the U.S. and Europe to expand its business and readied an initial public offering with a U.S. investment firm.

In 2012, however, Kaspersky Lab abruptly changed course. Since then, high-level managers have left or been fired, their jobs often filled by people with closer ties to Russia’s military or intelligence services. Some of these people actively aid criminal investigations by the FSB, the KGB’s successor, using data from some of the 400 million customers who rely on Kaspersky Lab’s software, say six current and former employees who declined to discuss the matter publicly because they feared reprisals. This closeness starts at the top: Unless Kaspersky is traveling, he rarely misses a weekly banya (sauna) night with a group of about 5 to 10 that usually includes Russian intelligence officials. Kaspersky says in an interview that the group saunas are purely social: “When I go to banya, they’re friends.”

. . . .

In 2014 after a handful of senior managers, including Chief Technology Officer Nikolay Grebennikov and North American President Steve Orenberg, asked Kaspersky to consider appointing a new CEO and retaining only the chairmanship of the company, he fired them.

Chief Legal Officer Igor Chekunov, who regularly joins Kaspersky’s banya nights, is the point man for the company’s work with the Russian government, three of the insiders say. Since 2013 he has managed a team of 10 specialists who study data from customers who have been hacked and provide technical support to the FSB and other Russian agencies. The team can access data directly from any of the company’s systems.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-19/cybersecurity-kaspersky-has-close-ties-to-russian-spies

“The Russians did not find their own ‘Kadyrov’ among the Tatars, and instead chose the method of repression,” Ukraine’s ambassador to the UN Yuriy Serheiev wrote on Twitter, quoting Dzhemilev.

http://www.unian.info/politics/1057868-dzhemilev-explains-repression-in-crimea-russia-could-not-find-a-kadyrov-there.html

The EU said Thursday it would not bow to Russian demands to delay further the planned January 2016 implementation of a free trade deal with Ukraine which is bitterly opposed by Moscow.

“The date is the first of January next year,” EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem said.

“It is not for Russia to decide,” Malmstroem said, adding that the 28-nation European Union has been very clear on the issue.

The free trade accord is part of the broader 2014 EU Association Agreement at the heart of the Ukraine crisis and was originally due to come into effect in January this year.

http://news.yahoo.com/eu-says-no-further-delay-ukraine-trade-deal-173544095.html

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton will attend a fundraiser at the home of hedge fund billionaire Marc Lasry despite his known ties to the Russian mafia, according to Politico.

Lasry, a longtime friend of the Clintons who employed Chelsea Clinton at his hedge fund, will hold a $2,700-a-person event at his New York City home next week.

Lasry threw his support behind Hillary Clinton’s campaign earlier this year and was caught crafting a fundraising strategy with fellow Democratic donor Jeffrey Katzenberg during a meeting at the Viceroy Anguilla hotel in the Caribbean.

http://freebeacon.com/politics/billionaire-tied-to-russian-mob-to-hold-fundraiser-for-hillary-clinton/

The Economist called it a “refreshing” ignorance of political correctness.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigaz

У Росії відкрили пам'ятник "зеленим чоловічкам" з котом в руках http://t.co/9lvC77EkLA pic.twitter.com/HQeWkx1hzp

— 24 канал (@24tvua) May 6, 2015

http://gfycat.com/BlissfulTastyHuia

Good read.

http://thepeoplescube.com/peoples-blog/why-did-ukraine-parliament-outlaw-communism-and-nazism-t16250.html#sthash.E7lwO2mb.tvayvx1Y.dpuf

Five soldiers who recently quit, including two who said they left rather than serve in Ukraine, have told Reuters of their experiences.

One of the five, from Moscow, said he was sent on exercises in southern Russia last year but ended up going into Ukraine in an armored convoy.

“After we crossed the border, a lieutenant colonel said we could be sent to jail if we didn’t fulfil orders. Some soldiers refused to stay there,” said the soldier, who served with the elite Russian Kantemirovskaya tank division. He gave Reuters his full name but spoke on condition of anonymity, saying he feared reprisals.

He said he knew two soldiers who refused to stay. “They were taken somewhere. The lieutenant colonel said criminal cases were opened against them but in reality – we called them afterwards – they were at home. They just quit.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/10/us-ukraine-crisis-soldiers-specialreport-idUSKBN0NV06Q20150510

Ukraine, in a break with tradition that is certain to rile Moscow, is ditching the Soviet name for World War Two and aims to adopt the poppy, a mainly British wartime symbol, to mark the 70th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany.

The moves, signaled by Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk on Wednesday, marked an attempt by Kiev to distance itself from Moscow’s Soviet-style celebrations, planned for May 9, as the conflict with Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine drags on.

In another break with the Soviet past, Kiev will align its calendar with that of its European allies by adding for the first time May 8 – known in the West as Victory in Europe Day – as a national holiday.

A decree signed by President Petro Poroshenko fixed May 8 as a day for reconciliation between those Ukrainians who fought only the Nazis with those who, after the war, went on to fight Soviet rule also.

Ukraine will then mark Victory day on May 9 with its own war veterans’ march in Kiev and several other big cities.

Kiev, with most Western governments, is boycotting the World War Two victory festivities in Moscow because of Russia’s role in the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Moscow denies it is arming the rebels.

Kiev has announced plans for a sweeping security operation involving tens of thousands of police across Ukraine to guard against attacks by separatists or Russian agents during the festivities.

Yatseniuk, whose government is set on a program of integration into the European mainstream following the ousting of a Moscow-backed president in February 2014, urged people to wear a poppy during the May victory celebrations in Kiev and other Ukrainian cities. He described it as a “European symbol”.

“Let all the other ribbons be worn by the Russian Federation which claims it was Russia that won the Second World War,” Yatseniuk said.

Yatseniuk’s phrasing made clear he supported proposals to drop the Soviet name Great Patriotic War to describe the conflict against Nazi Germany that in the West is generally referred to as the Second World War or World War Two.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/22/us-ukraine-crisis-poppy-idUSKBN0ND1JI20150422

– Behavioral norms are important.
– They should be regarded as property.

http://zaxid.net/news/showNews.do?zvichka__to_druga_natura&objectId=1346373

Summary of points:

– Ukrainian men will feel ownership of their country.
– We need a good justice system.
– Russian mythology is suffering.

http://zaxid.net/news/showNews.do?vikliki_dovgoyi_viyni&objectId=1339121

http://tvzvezda.ru/news/vstrane_i_mire/content/201504170946-hpud.htm

Boric Russian hockey spent the first period of the match with the team of Finland Euro Tour in the red with the inscription USSR retrosviterah chest. Broadcast of the match led channel “Russia 2”.

http://www.unian.net/sport/1068143-rossiyskie-hokkeistyi-vyishli-na-match-evrotura-v-forme-sssr.html

Russian oligarchs run from Putin paying millions for their ‘freedom’

Sanctions against Russia make Russian oligarchs give everything to obtain citizenship in the UK. According to Bloomberg, the number of people applying to the British Embassy for visas and citizenship has doubled. In the first nine months of 2013 their number was 96, for the same period in 2014 – there were more than 160 applicants, Joinfo.ua reports with reference to Bloomberg.

Economic sanctions have led to the fact that there is the high intensity of not only capital outflows, but also the oligarchs.

British visa is issued for such people only in the case of their consent to become an investor, investing at least £ 2 million (more than $ 3 million) in the UK economy.

So far, more than 160 Russian citizens had filed a request for a visa (the so-called Tier 1 visa) in the first nine months of 2014.

Airlines Slash Routes to Moscow in Latest Sign of Russia’s Growing Isolation
Carriers scratch flights as the number of foreign visitors declines and the plunging ruble keeps Russian vacationers at home

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-17/airlines-slash-routes-to-moscow-in-latest-sign-of-russia-s-growing-isolation

Russia Sees Exodus of Migrant Workers

The devaluation of the ruble has coincided with new migration regulations that mean for many Central Asian migrants, it’s no longer worth their while to work in Russia.

More than 178,000 Tajik nationals left Russia in the second half of 2014 and nearly 365,000 Uzbeks left the country during the same period.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/multimedia/video/russia-sees-exodus-of-migrant-workers/515506.html

Opel and Chevrolet ‘to leave Russia’
http://www.unian.info/economics/1057062-opel-and-chevrolet-to-leave-russia.html