First and most important is to recognise and understand the Cyrillic alphabet. This will be essential for absolutely everything from road direction signs onwards. Google 'Cyrillic Alphabet' to find tables including English sounds.
Actually you will find many people with a fairly good level of knowledge of English in cities and often in quite small towns, particularly among the younger population.
People who want to communicate invariably will succeed - irrespective of language barriers!
But it is far better, and more polite, to have a basic understanding of Russian for the straightforward niceties and needs of everyday life.
Look on Ebay for the Michel Thomas CDs. I find them very good for using alone if you work at it in very regular, small periods. It is a audio course without books, but a booklet is provided showing new words in Cyrillic and phonetic as they are met and first used by the speakers. The 8 CD, 8+ hours, Foundation Course (called 'Speak Russian for Beginners' in USA) should be more than sufficient. It includes the 2 CDs of the Introduction Course ('Get Started' in USA). Her indoors, a Russian, was impressed with the course and my progress!
Удачи!
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