I'd love to hear about how you get on in Russia - I'm all for it over there! The Aviation scene depends highly on investment in ways such as this to survive - and when you think of the aircraft and technology that came out of Russia up to the early 1990's then it's wrong to not support them now.
On a technical note; I deal with the Russian authorities on an almost daily basis and they are getting much better and far more westernised by the day. The navigator is a throwback to the Cold War days when they didn't want you to go anywhere other than where they wanted you to go (those who've listened to David Gunson's CD recently will remember the "Speed, Height and Heading" joke) - and now they carry on because, once again, it brings in money to the country. It's only about 5 years (if I remember correctly) since they stopped needing Navigators on IFR flights in the country. That's been one major development, so I would imagine that eventually the requirement will go for VFR too - when they realise that if they took that requirement away they'd have more people coming and spending money there.
However, that said, if you're going there you do need an awful lot of $US. It pays for everything and everything is costly for tourists - it's their two-tiered pricing structure.
Anyway Whirly, do write it all down here when you return! Have a great time.