Hi - I'm also ETA for Russia (found out Wednesday).
I'm going to be working in Russia this summer and there's no way I would've been able to make it back to DC for orientation, so I asked. Response from Rachel on Friday was that there will NOT be an in-person pre-departure orientation for Russia. Good news for me!
There will probably be some kind of webinar series, then the in-country orientation in Moscow. I found tentative dates here - http://fulbright.ru/ru/rusinstitutes/eta
Email group sounds good...
