[bayesian_horse]

You really don't need FSB moles if the property and even personal survival of the CEO is in the hands of an authocratic regime.

No Russian citizen in Russia, especially not anyone with any kind of wealth, can deny the government's requests. Whether the influence on Kasperky is from the top or only starts further down the chain, is more of a stylistic aspect of handling intelligence assets...

[agarden]

This, too, is not unique to Russia. Joseph Nacchio was CEO of Qwest[1] when he refused to hand things over to the NSA. Lucrative government contracts were then dropped, Qwest's earnings took a hit, and Nacchio was subsequently prosecuted for insider trading. As I understand it, the accusation was that he knew they were not going to meet their earnings forecast and his contention is that he did not because the government contracts being dropped was a surprise to him.

"Since being freed in September 2013, Nacchio, 65, has repeatedly denied he engaged in insider trading, arguing that he thought Qwest had opportunities to get federal contracts that would have boosted its revenue, but those opportunities were withdrawn after the company's alleged refusal to cooperate with a National Security Agency surveillance program.

Nacchio has suggested repeatedly that the government's prosecution of him was payback for not helping the NSA."[2]

Even if it turns out that Nacchio really is guilty of insider trading and the government did nothing untoward, one can see how easy it would be for the US government to destroy the life of a CEO they find uncooperative.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Nacchio

2. https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2015/04/29/joe-nacch...

[bayesian_horse]

That seems to be a rather particular case, of which the details are not publicly known. It could easily be that the NSA had a particularly good reason to withdraw the contracts, and obviously the company didn't have a right to these contracts in the first place, or the NSA wouldn't have been able to stop them.

On the other hand, the NSA is not controlled by the government, at least not to the level of individual prosecutions, investigations or contracts.

[unlmtd1]

Russians are more free than Americans.