fischi

In my experience, Moscow is a fairly typical Eastern European capital city. I find it to be about as safe/unsafe as London. My personal experience of crime is that it is infinitely higher in London than Moscow - in that I was glassed once in London and never in Moscow There is crime, but it is not dramatic in the main tourist areas. Moscow is no longer the city many imagine from the 80s of frequent street crime and overt organized crime. I know a lot of people see Russia as dangerous, much like NYC is no longer the city of daily murders, even though many may imagine it that way. My apartment has two 6cm thick doors, each with 6 dead bolts. I assume it was once necessary. We only use one and only lock one deadbolt. But of course it is a major city and crime can happen anywhere, so take care like you would anywhere else. Download a taxi app - yandex or gettaxi or the like - taxis can be hard to hail on the street and I've heard, but not experienced, that hailed taxis could be unsafe. Know where you want to go and more or less how to get there so you aren't wandering around lost. The metro system is great. If you learn the Cyrillic alphabet before you come (not too hard, really) it is pretty easy to navigate.

I see you are based in Slough, so I am assuming you're British? You should check on travel guidance from the Foreign Office before you leave (https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/russia), but right now they are only advising against traveling near the Ukrainian border area. But I suppose that if the US arms the Ukraine things could get bad quickly. Since the sanctions/counter-sanctions started I've been expecting negative interactions from Russians, but I honestly haven't experienced anything beyond typical Russian gruffness. If anything, ordinary Russians are more polite to me, which probably means that they are more careful not to express their true opinions. I have found that most Russians I interact with do genuinely believe, or at least claim to believe, the Kremlin line on Ukraine - that the west is the instigator and Russia the protector in the conflict. Before you come, you could check out the Moscow Times (daily english newspaper) online and see what is going on.

It is true that fewer people speak English than in other European cities, but it is far from true that "no one" speaks English. Most commercial interactions are doable between English and smartphone translation apps. I'm sure you will be fine. I have found that native Russian speakers have a hard time understanding non-native speakers who speak Russian poorly (as I do). I don't think it is a matter of lack of willingness, but more likely that Russians just aren't used to hearing bad Russian in foreign accents - they just aren't accustomed to working with non-native speakers are trying to say and the kind of language mistakes they make.

I bet you will have a great trip. In many ways, it is a good time to visit. Moscow used to be about 30% more expensive than Western Europe, but with the fall in Ruble, it is kind of a good deal right now. Moscow is probably as tourist-oriented today as it ever was - there is a big domestic tourist industry and there are a lot of businesses and systems set up to help/extract money from tourists.

Good luck.