>I won't say that it comes from top. I believe that some are having too much power and they try to bring personal issues into this or any other actions that could encourage them to hurt someone/a company/a user group/any other organization that is trying to do something for the developer's community. Up to that point, yes, there is an issue here. I believe some situations being heard at Redmond would make some changes down to some local offices.

I've never believed in the paradigm about the good king with evil advisors. Microsoft is a hierarchy, and in a hierarchy of that order of magnitude (word "size" sounds misplaced here) there's very slim chance that a local office may be doing something serious without the upper office knowing, endorsing or directly ordering it.

There's a chance, though, that the king would say a few harsh words against his lieutenants, in case the whole project was designed so. If it works, the it was king's orders, if it doesn't, it was lieutenants' runing amok, and they will be promoted into scapegoats.