If they are the upstarts in these countries they can do whatever they want. It's just the ballot, you can change the search engine from the settings just fine. No other browser offers a ballot anyway.
Google isn't the dominant player there and they can do whatever they want to grab market share, there is nothing wrong with that.
It's like asking Apple to offer a choice of browsers in Mac OS, because Microsoft also does it (at least in Europe after EU forced them to do it).
But it's not, and that's the reason to point out issues like these, to puncture the undeserved "goodness" reputation that Google cultivates, but is at odds with reality.
When Google offers users a choice, it appears that they're being fair, but Google offers that choice because they know that they won't lose market share. If they did start losing market share, the "choice" would be gone. That's not a choice, that's a calculated decision to foster the "goodness" reputation.
And when are you mass-penalizing travel sites not to compete with yours?
But not providing that choice based solely on a user's location, that's worthy of criticism.
The choice is there, you can change the settings, the ballot just doesn't popup.
It just seems that by your standards Google would have come out better off having never introduced the ballot, which was a good idea.
Google adores the reputation they have for somehow being above the fray and simply being the best. They cultivate this image. But over and over it's revealed that they are a normal company, who does things such as "delayed open source" to keep partners in line, purposely introducing systematic flaws in their Web search API, and of course the foregoing "special circumstances", all of which are sneaky ways to have the appearance of the image they want, while keeping their competitive advantage.
I don't begrudge them these decisions, but all the Google fawning does get a little hard to take, as if they have some sort of moral superiority. The facts say otherwise. They are not altruistic. They do not make decisions that might hurt themselves in order to give others an equal chance. Google has replaced Apple is the PR machine extraordinaire in the modern corporate world.
the higher standards are a little bit lower in Russia.