It's probably because they speak Russian - I know that might sound silly, but the english internet is not so appealing to non-english speaking people. I would like to see more languages represented here - but thats up to the users!
This is great news though - I love hearing stuff like that.
Iran has always been a bit extreme when it comes to internet usage (not as bad a china though) they were going to shut down the internet in the country during the election...
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/...ica/tehran.php
but believe me - there's always a way out - believe it or not the last line of defense within the tcp/ip protocol is actually carrier pigeons...
I remember when the internet was jiffy bags and floppy discs
keeping the scene alive...
EDIT:
there used to be a network called FIDONET - which used to operate over phone lines and would update between the peers over night when it was cheep - it wouldn't surprise me if we'd have to revert to these techniques one day..