I don't think this or other contests (Code Jam, IOI, TopCoder, Code Forces etc.) are well-known among the software community anywhere. Just like math competitions, they are very much dominated by students who were prodigies in math and computer science. Most of the highly successful competitors grew up being part of their country's math and informatics olympiad training programs, so they have years of practice. Average university students or software developers have little reason to take an interest because they just don't have the skills to compete at that level.

That said, within the competition community, the ICPC is in fact very prestigious, including in Russia, and teams do spend hundereds of hours training. You're representing your entire university, you only have two years of eligibility so winning is very difficult, and it's the only major team-based competition in this format (with the team sharing a single computer), which adds a camaraderie aspect that made it more enjoyable for me than individual competitions.