Opera in Russia and Ukraine

Why is Opera so popular in Russia and Ukraine?

According to statistics (Bigmir, LiveInternet, links in the basement), Opera (including all versions) in Russia and Ukraine is, if not the leader, then very close to it. At the same time, in the world as a whole, Opera is considerably (by an order of magnitude!) Less popular. The data on the percentages in the table below:


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The amount for Russia and Ukraine is less than 100% since other browsers were not taken into account.
The amount for the world is more than 100%, because Wikipedia uses averages from several sources.

How can this phenomenon be explained? Why such mad popularity? I will say right away, I do not know the exact answer, I myself am very interested, hence the publication of this topic.
Yes, it would be very interesting to hear the views of representatives of the Opera, who, as I understand it, are present at Habré.

Possible hypotheses:

• special efforts of the Opera producer in the markets of Russia and Ukraine to promote the product
• special convenience (according to some reviews) of the Opera in work on dial-up
• something else?

Sources of statistics:
Ukraine
Russia
World

Statistics own sites confirms the picture.

Update: Even in Norway, according to StatCounter GlobalStats, Opera is less popular than ours (although it is more popular than the world average - 6.13%)