I was there last April. The hotels are expensive for the quality. Search Starwood & I think Marriot site.

The changes over the past 5 years is amazing. It is a capitalistic society.

Rubles are the currency of trade.

Quality foodstuffs are no longer a problem. Expensive restaurants are very expensive. Mid priced restaurants have decent food, nothing special that I could find.

Learn the alphabet if not a Russian speaker. An amazing number of words are english in cyrllic.

Try to find a driver and a car, or arrange to be met whenever you wish to travel. Cabs are few and far between, and a driver and car is probably under $100 a day. Learn to use the subway, and chose a hotel close to it. It is cheap, extremely efficient, and safe. Traffic and car polution are very bad.

If you stay at the Shearton, stay on the club floor. Nice breakfast and decent ordurves included. Breakfast is $25, as I recall.

This is the English language newspaper:

http://www.moscowtimes.ru/

For overall information, start here:

http://www.infoservices.com/moscow/map/
and search the links.

print the maps. They are useful.

Get travel guides that have been printed recently. Moscow has gone through more change in the past 5 years than Paris/London/Rome have since WW2.

The Hotel Rossia has not changed. Avoid it at all costs.