Paradox finishes the game, gives it out to the publishers, and from there it's their business to get the game out to everyone. The more people the larger the chore. HOI was actually only released in a few select stores in Russia, and without a manual, so you can see why it would be easier to get that done. The NA release was plagued with lots of bad luck and that sort of thing, so it got released a lot later than was expected. I guess the Europeans are just lazy. 
P.S. NA is more like 320 million.
P.S. NA is more like 320 million.