Do you enjoy Wait But Why blog? Because I do.

And because the author have been in Russia: http://waitbutwhy.com/2014/07/russia-what-you-didnt-know.html.
The view from the other side? Cool!
Wait But Why author shared his feelings about his visit to Russia:

A lot of cars have the steering wheel on the right side even though they drive on the right side of the road. Odd.

They don’t call it World War II, they call it The Great Patriotic War, and only talk about the 1941-1945 part of it. And most places I went to had a memorial dedicated to it. Which makes sense, given that over 20 million Soviets died in the war.

Siberia is real. I spent over half of the trip in Siberia, including taking the Trans-Siberian Railway 64 hours from Moscow to Krasnoyarsk (I highly recommend this, btw). 

Siberia makes up 77% of Russia—everything but the westernmost quarter of the country—and Siberia alone would be by far the biggest country in the world if it were severed from Western Russia.

There’s no fact about Russian history that I enjoy more than that the succulent St. Basil’s Cathedral… was ordered for construction under the reign of Ivan the Terrible. Who knows what his actual feelings were about things, but I prefer to imagine him being a widely feared man who was obsessed with rainbows and colorful swirlies and anyone who ever laughed at him about this was promptly beheaded.

You know what’s remote? Here.

Read more insights on his blog: http://waitbutwhy.com/2014/07/russia-what-you-didnt-know.html

From the bloglines

"Before my journey, I believed what most Americans believe: Russia is a borderline, third-world country; its citizens are a skeptical and secretive people who depressingly dramatize their past history, and drink themselves into oblivion at will. The country’s leaders support an aberrant form of socialism that condones violations of human rights and views bribery as the normal course of business. Those that do not fit into the prior categories are either violent spies or vicious gangsters. How do Americans know that truth? Simple. We see these truths in our motion pictures, television shows, and press articles written by reporters who have never seen the inside of an ordinary Russian home!

...surprise, surprise, there is food for all, movie theaters with interesting flicks, coffee shops with mountains of tasty pastries, clean, efficient and beautiful metros, abundant, reasonably-priced taxis and shopping malls with food courts. Russia is now the 6th largest economy in the world. I’m certain less than 1% of 300 million Americans would have ever guessed that. Even worse, I suspect there are Americans who still think Russians stand on lines to obtain the basics of everyday life..."

Read more: One American's view of Russia

Two big websites about Russia

Well, if you need some information about atmosphere, cultural things, political climate etc. before your trip, you could try one of these pages:

Russia Beyond The Headlines (a bit official, very serious one but with blogs)
English Russia (unofficial, very relaxed, with lots of pictures)

Have fun!