It was also created by non-US residents, I think, right?

There are definitely reasons why some projects might want to deliberately seek out hosting outside of 5eyes countries, no doubt. But the original question was why, and I think most people create their projects wherever they're living at the time, or where they think they'll get the most users.

I'm not sure whether US residents hosting projects on Russian servers would be much less susceptible to US "charms," come to think of it.