Do not visit with empty hands. If you are invited for dinner or lunch, do not to come to Russian friends without anything. You need to bring something like a box of chocolates, flowers, or small toys if there are children. Russians are trying hard to cook something unusual, if there are guests. You also need to show that you care.
Take off shoes when you go in someone’s home. The Russian apartments have a lot of expensive carpets, which are not as easy to clean as the carpet in American houses. According to a centuries-old tradition everyone who comes to their house should take off shoes.
Don’t joke about parents. Russians can not stand when someone is joking about their parents. You can tell any jokes, but if you make jokes about someone’s mother or fathers, you would not be understood.
Do not say a toast “Nuh zdah-rohv’e!” (for health). People who do not speak in Russian, knows one phrase for a toast “Nuh zdah-rohv’e!” (for health). But Russians use this phrase only saying thanks for the delicious cooked food.
Do not take the “last shirt”. Russians are very polite and can offer you all of what you just start talking about, whether it is a picture on the wall or blanket on the couch. But you should not take it, because they just want to please you.
Do not dress too simple. Russians dress up quite often. Russian women can wear high heels and expensive dress even for a walk. They explain it this way: “We live only once.” Visiting the theater in Russia is considered almost a holiday.
Going Dutch. Russians do not go Dutch Date. Russian woman if you invited her to a restaurant never pays for herself. She can not even take any money on a date.
Do not allow women to wear weight herself. This usually annoys politically correct people, but Russians believe that men should wear weight, because they are physically stronger. You can seem to be rude if you just look at a woman carrying something heavy.
Be polite with older people in public transport. In Russia, it is considered unacceptable if in public transport young people are sitting and older people are standing alongside. In the US offering to sit you can offend the older man. In Russia, if you do not, all people in a transport will treat you as a criminal.
Regurgitation. The manifestation of the good work of your body is considered to be very rude. If this happens, you should not apologize to draw attention. In most cases, Russians pretend that nothing had happened.
