I wonder if it's a great move for Jolla: Cooperation with the Russian government may raise more doubts than it eliminates. And what happens when the Russian government wants the OS changed somehow? Jolla may find itself under tremendous pressure to agree, or Russia could fork it and corrupt the brand's image.
I have the same concern. I don't think when the Russian government is your biggest (or sole) investor that you can say "no" to backdoors similar to those recently found in quite a lot of Chinese Android devices. In theory you can but in practice they can twist your arm enough for you to agree.
Even though I am more likely to trust the Russian gov't compared to the USA gov't, I still can't safely assume they are the best-hearted people in the world and they'll just open-source all the Sailfish OS code and keep the process fully transparent.
I want to believe it but IMO this is the modern arms race and the superpowers are simply trying to make their weapon better than the others. :(
