best places to learn russian outside of russia?

jaskamiin: best places to learn russian outside of russia?
A friend and I are going overseas next year to live abroad and study Russian. We want to find cities where we can live in and Russian is commonly spoken so we can improve.

Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine(eastern) are obvious, but I didn’t know about countries like:
Moldova (chisnau)
Latvia(Riga, maybe? i’ve seen alot speaking russian..)
Lithuania
Estonia (Tallinn may have a decent amount.. )
Romania
(not really interested in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, etc.. mainly sticking to Eastern Europe.. though we will try to visit those others, trying for minimal visas…)
Obviously Russian is not their official language, but I’ve heard of large russian speaking populations.

So let me know what you know.

Thanks

Answers and Views:

Answer by damusiu
i’m lithuanian, so what can i say… try choose lithunia ages ago lithuania was occupied by russians… so here is still alot of people that can easly talk russian language,almost everyone here above 40~ age can talk russian easly.

Answer by Mart
Young generation in Estonia speaks english as second language and older (over 40) speak russian too.
The fact that I’m from Estonia and don’t know much russian although I’ve learned it in school, speaks for itself (not enough day-to-day practice).

In my experience Latvians speak russian very well, even young generation.
When choosing between Baltic states, I would recommend Latvia.

First three might be a bit too extreme since its hard to use english and they are outside EU.