Thanks for the heads up! Did a little search on Google and a few trip reports (such as http://www.gaijinriders.com/wiki/Sak..._-_August_2012)... what I found confirmed exactly what you said, just make sure your Russian visa and propiska are in order and ideally be prepared with a few Russian phrases to satisfy the immigration officers at UUS.

As much as I'd love to visit the Kuril islands as well, that sounds like something you need a specialist travel agency for - as a foreigner the permits seem very difficult to get otherwise.

As an aside, initially I was looking at flying Eastbound: JFK-DUS-MUC (AB) -OVB-UUS (S7). Apparently S7 also flies to Beijing, so routing JFK-ORD-PEK (AA)-UUS (S7) is also possible. Distance is almost identical, and personally I'm not how sure I feel about connecting in Novosibirsk...