Dear friends and colleagues!

I need to make the following very important statement. Unfortunately, the Russian representative office of ESET, backed by Leta-IT, is continuing to discredit the Anti-Malware.ru portal, the Anti-Malware Test Lab and me personally.

Recently, it has come to my attention that ESET, at the suggestion of its Russian subsidiary, is conducting a propaganda campaign (particularly in the West) in which they claim the portal is associated with Kaspersky Lab. Their actions very nearly jeopardized the alliance with AV-Comparatives. Evidence of the ESET subsidiary spreading false or distorted information has come to my notice on several occasions over the last few months.

The final straw was when a scanned image of my passport started circulating with my real name (rather typical of the company’s style, wouldn’t you say?) in an attempt to prove that I work at KL. I’ve never actually tried to hide the fact that I work for KL (read here).

What’s all this about, you may ask. What kind of threat does Anti-Malware.ru pose to ESET? It’s all perfectly simple:

1. Our tests. The results have put a proverbial spanner in the works when it comes to ESET’s strategic advancement of their products. Say what you like, but at the end of the day, their products don’t perform as well as their advertising or web site would have you believe.

2. An unsuccessful takeover attempt. In a word, it is straightforward blackmail: "Sell us your portal or we’ll shut you down by waging an information war!" Alexander Chachava, CEO of Leta-IT Company, and Dmitry Popovich, ex-CEO of Eset Russian, were involved in the negotiations. The latter hinted several times that the portal would suffer the consequences if there was a refusal to sell. I can’t stand being threatened or blackmailed. So go ahead, try and shut us down! 

In connection with the facts outlined above, the Anti-Malware Test Lab is forthwith severing all ties with the Russian subsidiary of ESET and Leta-IT.

Free vocabulary

• Eset war tests takeover