Sad...but unsurprising. Modern Russia is one of the world's most corrupt societies, particularly at the highest levels. They've gone from communism to some crazy form of rogue capitalism with few rules and few repercussions for the powerful/wealthy/criminal as long as they don't rock the established political order.

Transparency International's 2010 Corruption Index for last year ranked Russia as "Highly Corrupt" (position 154 out of the 178 countries rated).

Here is a link that might be useful: Corruption Index

Money is at the root of all this corruption. One wonders if they really want information from the elder Kapersky's lab. Think of what they might do with such information----far more than the 4.3 mil. they are demanding in ransom.

The Seattle Times is reporting son free of his kidnappers this evening and no ransom paid. I'm assuming they will elaborate on the story and give more details tomorrow as should other news sites :) If this is factual, it sounds like it ended very well.