Money Spending Money Prices at restaurants and shops are often listed in U.S. dollars. In most cases payment is in Russian rubles.
Credit cards are only useful in Western hotels, high-end restaurants and some Western shops.
Russian prices are considerably lower than those in more developed countries, but if you don't speak Russian and want to live a Westerner, Moscow can be a very expensive city. The easiest way to get rubles is to change U.S. dollars, or, to a lesser-extent, Deutsche marks. Russians tend to keep their savings in dollars hidden under their mattresses, so the country is filled with obmen valyuti, or exchange booths. These foot soldiers of the Russian economy are about two to a corner in most major cities and usually have better rates than banks. Other currencies can be exchanged in Moscow and St. Petersburg, although not as readily or as cheaply.