How safe is Moscow for Americans?

[Leslie Farmer]

underground walkways and the
subway, overnight trains, train stations, airports, markets, tourist
attractions, restaurants, hotel rooms, and residences, even when locked or
occupied. Groups of children are known to assault and rob foreigners on
city streets or underground walkways. Foreigners who have been drinking
alcohol are especially vulnerable to assault and robbery in or around
nightclubs or bars, or on their way home. Robberies may occur in taxis
shared with strangers.

This correlates with what I read in travel books and magazines in 1998.  So I
made my first visit to Russia with some apprehension.  I took a few more
precautions than usual, but used underground walkways and the subway when I
needed too, ditto trains stations, airports, restaurants, and so on.

 Either my precautions worked or they were unnecessary.  (To put this in
context, I don't speak Russian--can get by in Czech, French and Italian--am
middle-aged and tend to be mistaken for Italian in Prague and Syrian or
French in the US, so maybe I don't look/dress "typically American".)

 My worst moments in Russia were a tinge of claustrophobia --I'm not a
claustrophobic, but Russians seem to bump up, squeeze by, and generally
impinge on personal space more than Czechs or Poles.  I didn't feel
endangered, just rather stressed out--less so in St. Petersburg, where people
seem to be a bit more relaxed and polite, than in Moscow.

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