there's a bit of a difference between Dutch usage of a German airport and Russian usage of a Finnish one.
840, I don't know if it is a compliment for you, but your skepticism reminds me the opinion of Michael O'Leary expressed by him less than 5 years ago. ”Who would like to fly to Poland?”. I've just counted the amount of routes from/to Poland today, according to the present route map on Ryanair's site (by the way, Warsaw has finally gone). There are total of 67 (sixty-seven) routes on that map between Poland and rest of Europe. O'Leary was very late when he decided to enter Poland, he absolutely missed some opportunities there allowing others to take important steps ahead. It's extremely good for the sake of competition, but he made a mistake and he admitted it.
True, there are some very fundamental differences between Russia's and Netherlands' neighbourhoods. In former numerous limits exist, like visas, difficult border crossing, the poverty of Russian population and so on, no doubt about it. Nevertheless you must put things into some perspective. Russia constitutes so vast market! Even if first steps were difficult, there is no big risk at all in starting something (it's like a drop of water in the river, look at some unprofitable routes they've kept for years). Probably, FR should team up with a bus enterprise and give Russians some services they need. I'm pretty sure the airport could provide a Russian speaking staff to attend the visitors, it's not so difficult.
Just some imagination! MOL is thinking very locally in fact, wants to dominate the local market first while some opportunities should be anticipated and tried in more aggressive way. On another side, you have so much options to fly from the Netherlands and neighbouring countries. Does St.Petersburg have any true low-cost connections? Air Berlin's LED-MXP starting at 130€ one way (up to over 360)? Or perhaps Paris from 119€ one way on some rare days only?
Once in my life I've been to Russia (former Soviet Union in fact). Me too, I dislike the visa issues, that's why I did not travel there any more. Cheap flights, however, could soften my attitude. And who knows, one day the Russian state (and EU) could soften their visa regulations too. It's worth considering gaining some brand recognition and position/exposure there, before it happens.