<ironic> Finally Europe has a European Google! </ironic>

Europe stretch to the Urals.

Yandex was there for many years now. Its just that now this is "european" Yandex and in Russia there is a "Moscow Yandex".

Also - search tech will remain in Moscow. EU Yandex is mainly about cloud solutions, self-driving cars etc.

Probably just to avoid paying taxes (the famous "dutch sandwich" trick)