Wouldn't it be better to host in Asia (Viet-Nam comes to mind) or Central / South America (Nicaragua etc)? Latency might suck but it would be better than no access.
As a French citizen I wouldn't host anything in Russia, not from a moral standpoint but because we're at war (it's a "soft" war for now, but who knows how it will evolve).
Just plain convenience and my laziness. Also, I'm not concerned about being prosecuted for the use of VPN (well, at least for now), I just want my Internet to work.