Howdy, y'all.
Moscow, Russia here. A rather strange place for an american to live, I guess. Although I was born in Russia, in it's Eastern reaches, right on the border with China (Amur river). The country spans 11 time zones. Has just about every type of climate possible, depending on location. Monstrous reserves of natural resources, mostly inaccessible (rather, too costly to access for industrial purposes).
Pretty unique culture - on one hand, rather like the British (as per one of the previous posts), where trying to talk to a stranger (in a large city, at any rate) will get you a nasty look, and you have a 50/50 chance of being totally ignored. On the other hand, if you are not ignored (or if you are in a smaller town, village, etc.) - after striking up a conversation you will probably learn the full history of the person you are talking to, all his immediate and distant relatives, the town you are in, the country in general, their political views, personal problems, etc.... You get the picture. Somewhere in there you may actually get an answer to your original question of "how do I get to..."
Russians make the best friends and worst enemies. With hardly anything in-between. One of a few cultures (may even be unique in this) to have never started a war of conquest. And to have never lost a war, to my knowledge.
Used to have a really good education system, until the introduction of the standardized testing (equivalent of american SATs) which turned education into business and severely affected quality. Despite that, Russians continue being among some of the most ingenious folks, able to reach their goals using strange and non-standard methods.
Russians en masse are patriotic to a fault, bordering on racist, yet at the same time - very accepting of any race, creed and culture, as long as they do not offend their sense of patriotism. This is probably best described by the saying "He who comes to us with a sword - dies by the sword". How this fact can co-exist with so many Russians who belittle their own country, government and heritage at every opportunity sill astounds me.
Russia is a great country to visit, with plenty of interesting things and places to see. It is also a great place to live, provided your income is above middle-class (by Moscow standards, which means "friggin rich" by the standards of any other city below a couple million population).
I live in the Moscow suburbs, about 12 miles outside city proper, and cost of living is definitely lower here than even on the outskirts of Moscow. Having lived half my life in US, I find living in Russia simpler, easier and cheaper.
Not sure what else to add
Oh... Don't believe everything you hear in the news
Russians aren't war-hungry monsters. We're actually very laid-back, and extremely slow to anger. If one does manage to truly piss us off, though... Well, it's best to be as far away as possible until we calm down. And that tends to apply to separate individuals and the nation as a whole.
