Only if you're on "Team USA". Looking on from outside, it seems to me pretty obvious that a Russian security company might provide useful insights on US malware

Only if you're on "Team USA". Looking on from outside, it seems to me pretty obvious that a Russian security company might provide useful insights on US malware operations that a large US security company would be less inclined or would not immediately report on. Otherwise it's just your basic mudslinging; Both Kaspersky and US security companies are likely to do their governments favours, in particular by selectively not reporting things, both willingly and under pressure. If you're a US citizen working for a US security company and you'd stumble upon a US malware operation that appears to be doing something benign, such as preventing nuclear whatnots, you might be disinclined to report on it for fear of ruining a US malware mission--and even look past the fact that they're using such a risky, dangerous type of software to do it (being a worm/virus, remember that Stuxnet also disrupted and got into places that weren't targets). Back when Stuxnet was active, I closely followed the story and the existence of the (airgap-hopping) virus was discovered long before people got any solid ideas about its purpose. When finally the first reports came that the special control software checked for machines running on a frequency that were only used in either some Finnish industrial plant or these Iranian refineries[0], the first reports on this did not come from a US security company. [0] This part is a bit vague sorry. I wish I had sourced/fact-checked this part of the story better, years ago. There was so much going on.