If you plan to take American Express Travellers cheques to Russia, you should be aware that most banking instutions, including the local American Express agency, may refuse to accept them, or if they do, it could be at a 20% commission.

Travellers heading to Russia should re-think the use of American Express or any brand of Travellers Cheque.

ATM's are very common throughout Moscow and Saint Petersberg and in every larger city, but in smaller cities and villages, they may only be from the main Russian bank - Sberbank.  Sberbank will usually work with most foreign Debit cards (but in small cities and villages you rely upon the particular ATM having a good uplink to the main system in Moscow) so it is not wise to rely upon ATM's only and take some cash, just in case.

In the main cities, foreign Debit cards will work in many ATM's, but the most certain ones are Citibank, Raiffeisen, Sberbank and Barclays.  ATM's at these larger banks are nearly always bi-lingual (English and Russian) with some being multi-lingual.  Cash can be withdrawn at nearly all major ATM's in either Rubles or USD and a number of Raiffeisen ATM's will also offer Euro (€).  If you have difficulty with a Debit card, it is generally easier (but usually more costly) to get a cash advance from a Visa or Mastercard that allows cash advances from an ATM and almost any ATM seems to allow that.

Payment is made in Rubles at all shops and while some smaller owner operated shops and stalls may still allow foreign currency (USD or Euro) the legal tender for all payments is the Ruble and foreign currency is not supposed to be accepted for payments.  Supermarkets, restaurants and all major stores will not even consider foreign currency, but most will have either a money changer very close by or possibly a money changing machine in the vicinity.