The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is formed after the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991. is a regional intergovernmental organization of nine members, plus two founding non-member, post-Soviet republics in Eurasia, more on this can be found
here. This article discusses why the malware author does not want to infect users who are in or belong to one of The CIS countries. They do so by checking system language or Keyboard layout setting. If the case is true malware become inert or simple remove itself from that machine. Why?
The main reason is because of an unwritten policy of the Russian Federation. If an entity does not harm Russian and its neighbour's geopolitical interest the Russian government turn a blind eye to them. This protects and provides a safe harbour for malicious entities. They can host and operate their server safely without worrying about law enforcement agencies knocking on their doors. This also enhances the Russian Intelligence agency's Cyberwarfare and cyber espionage capacity. Since immunity seems to be granted to hackers as long as they leave Russian interests alone, becoming a hacker seems to be more of a logical financial decision than the perceived view by most of society as hackers being social pariahs.