The Cyrillic alphabet is similar to the Roman alphabet, so it is easy to learn unlike say Arabic or Chinese. Maybe there is a bit of the красивые девушки factor. Also I feel that much of the world still sees Russia as a superpower, so it is a respected country. To me it has a nice sound too. Russians are nice, sociable people and can be found all over the world. Russia also sits between Europe and Asia and has had long links with both.