I'm Russian. I grew up in the States and then made the horrible mistake of agreeing to go back to Russia for uni to please my mother. My parents still live in the States and I would give anything to turn back time and change my entire undergrad experience around, honestly.
I'm currently in my 5th and final year at St. Petersburg State, and all I can say is that it certainly isn't anywhere near as good as it's made out to be. Alright, perhaps compared to some other Russian universities it isn't that bad, but I hate it with an absolute passion and I cannot wait to graduate.
Someone mentioned Russian unis being harder than UK/US/etc ones - they're not. Trust me. The system's so easy to fool and get around that you end up with graduates who don't know ANYTHING and yet have straight As. It's ridiculous. A girl I know is on for the equivalent of a 1st* at St. Petersburg State (supposedly the best classical university in Russia) and thinks Orwell's "1984" is a non-fiction book about the year 1984. YES, it really is that bad.
I'm a political science major. I can't work here, because that would involve either working for Putin or working for some marginal party, and I have strong ethical objections to the former and strong financial objections to the latter (terribly sorry, but I'm not busting my behind for $300/month). Getting a job anywhere else is impossible for people off the street, even though I regard English as my native language and am entirely fluent in French, because the system is so corrupted that every single prestigious spot on the job market has already been "bought" by some influential parent for their kid. Considering the aforementioned kid probably has half a brain at best, it certainly won't help the structure they're going to be hired into, but hey, they paid enough so they're allowed to be stupid according to the rules of the game.
Don't get me wrong, I don't hate the country, the culture or the history... I hate the system and the political side of things, which is a huge deal for me as a poli sci major because that's obviously the field I want to go into.
As for the university system... well, the Bs I have (6 in total out of 40 grades to date, I think) are Bs because the professors marking the exams wanted money and I refused to pay. There aren't many like that left at all, but I was unfortunate enough to come across the few who actually are.
Last year (my 4th), a girl from my class ripped my entire 3rd year research project (all 25 pages of it, mind you) and passed it off as her own. In any NORMAL system, she'd be kicked out without even so much as a second glance. I came up to my research advisor as soon as I found out, and all he said was that "it's really no big deal" and "well, surely we shouldn't make a fuss about it, right, Alex?". YES YOU SHOULD. However, no one did anything and I was told that if I did go to other people with it, I'd be risking academic probation myself. The girl is still perfectly alive and well at the department and is graduating with the equivalent of a high 2:1.
Last year (you might've even heard about this), a guy from my department and my year, a very close friend of my friends, was stabbed to death in the centre of the city because he "didn't look Russian enough". The university once again threatened us with academic probation if we so much as participated in any civil protests because they were deemed to be too "radical".
It's not even so much the university system in general that bothers me so much, it's the people I come across on a daily basis. Half of these share a brain between themselves and their only claim to fame is that their daddies drive Porsche Cayennes on an "official" salary of $400/month, while the other half are all extremely radical right-wing racist bastards. Ethnically, I'm half Polish Jewish, and I was once told to get the hell out of the country because I wasn't Russian enough to fit their standards by people at an *official* (!!!!!!!!) university-sponsored (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) political get-together. Not one single university official of those present so much as reprimanded them for it.
In short, I'm throwing a gargantuan party the second I graduate. My god, it's been way too long...