Ditto to the Quark thing. They did an excellent job on our expedition last year, and if you do decide to chance it, there's a travel agent shop on the main drag by the dock with advertisements inthe window of the last minute, fill-the-space deals.

Russian crew, Russian ship, but all guides were European / Australian / American (eg, all spoke english fluently). Our expedition leader was tops and managed to get us into a few additional landing sites that weren't on the itinerary through negotiation with the captains of all the other ships.