I have a lot of respect for Kaspersky and hope they are still independent. But "ties to intelligence" can come in many forms: deliberate, coerced, or via infiltration. We've seen similar issues here in the US. Sometimes companies work voluntarily with the FBI and NSA, sometimes they are infiltrated or tricked by them.
I suppose that entirely depends on one's threat-model. As an American, I have greater concerns of USG oppression than I do Russian. As the Russians have their ham-fisted means of exterting influence on a company, the US has their very own nasty ways of infiltration.
If you're interested in personal freedoms free of malicious government intrusion, they both suck.
All this with Russian government/president approval rating of 70%.
The "living in germany" part doesn't contradict the same concerns that those living in russia have, as like those living in russia, the emigrated russians likely have:
- family still in russia - ties to russia (financial, business, family, etc) - desire to visit russia without having to deal with legal harassment for actions done abroad - desire to be able to assist people (family/friends) living in russia without compromising them
This does not mean that they are for or against a current government, but rather, that the proposed logic is specious as it tries to create a separation where it is not probable there is one while simultaneously extrapolating the results of a small sample size across a population that supposedly is without the influence of Russia.
The whataboutism is out in full force here.
You can still find the opposing views, quite easily.