Disclaimer: This is an opinion article, and poses nothing more than a theory.
The short answer is: They don't need to.
The longer answer is: It is probably a question of philosophy.
Elite gymnasts simply cannot compete all of their difficulty successfully all of the time, or even several times a year (see dictionary entry of Mustafina, Aliya). It's a recipe for disaster; you either get injured (see above example) or make some human mistakes and get a reputation as a headcase (see Nabieva, Tatiana).
In order to conserve both limbs and reputation, the U.S. women have been, shall we say, conservative about their participation in World Cup meets in the Martha Karolyi National Team Coordinator era.
As a philosophy, it has worked very well. The U.S. women aren't really interested in prize money, since most want to keep their NCAA eligibility just in case they don't become the next Shawn Johnson. The Karolyi Ranch verification camps provide a strong dose of competitive pressure -- probably even more pressure than a World Cup meet.
One of the main reasons to go to a World Cup is to build your reputation among an international field. The U.S. has the luxury of not needing to do this. Their international reputation is so well established that they really only need to do well at the World Championships, as well as dominating the American Cup and one or two meets like the Trofeo di Jesolo, to keep that reputation intact.
With all that going for them, why bother to travel?
So, the Moscow World Cup: The revelation that Alicia Sacramone and Rebecca Bross are on the nominative roster for the May 13-14 Moscow World Cup flies in the face of this proposed philosophy. Sacramone and Bross are the best examples of two gymnasts who enjoy great international reputations and have nothing to prove. (In addition, Sacramone was suffering from a broken foot at Worlds and Bross had ankle surgery in November for a stress fracture in her ankle.)
Secondly, there has been some bad blood (as much bad blood as there really gets in women's artistic gymnastics) between the U.S. and Russia since the Americans entered Jordyn Wieber in the American Cup on a technicality and Wieber upset Mustafina for the title. Any gymnast the U.S. sends to Russia can expect to be beaten by a Russian, provided said Russian doesn't fall and has a similiar start value.
Addendum: USA Gymnastics has tweeted that neither woman is planning to attend the Moscow World Cup, though both were invited.
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