Originally Posted by bcmatt

It's a common observation on FT that the DOS travel advice is particularly... scary! It might be useful to look at it in conjunction with, for example, UK and Australian government travel advice as well to getter a better/more realistic feel for the situation in any given country.
http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travelling-...ving-overseas/
http://www.smartraveller.gov.au/

You'll thank yourself if you invest a bit of time learning the Cyrillic alphabet - a) you'll find some words are surprisingly similar to English when you know how to read them and b) it is no use knowing you have to get off at Komosomolskaya metro station or a museum is on Bolshoi Zlatoustinskiy lane if you don't know how to read it in Russian (although sometimes signs will be in English as well)!

I'd also recommend trying the train to Moscow, just for the experience!