I'm lucky, my girl was a professional athlete who trained all over Europe in her teens and was traveling the world competing as an adult so her English is very good. Even still we have had some epic fights over miscommunication. When we are in person it's smooth, it's when we have to be apart, mainly during text that we can get out of sync. I can only imagine how much worse it would be if her English were limited. Having had this experience, with Corona now added to the mix, I realize how vitally important that communication level is, gone are any romantic notions that love can overcome  . Nope, the reality is a relationship is easy to walk away from when any long distance is involved... when you're fighting over nothing because of misunderstandings and not having sex, that routine grows old quick lol. I think for it to realistically work, for guys with real options that aren't desperate, you need as few difficulty barriers in your way as possible, even then it's hard. As such I couldn't begin with a girl who could at least fumble thru a conversation and had a serious goal of improving her English. If she were a beginner then it would be too much for me personally but to each their own.

As for learning Russian for her, again given who my girl is, it's not a priority. Not that I wouldn't do it but her English is good, her family consists of her mom who is an English teacher, she is used to integrating and adapting to new situations due to how her life pre me was. If the situation were different then maybe the need to learn Russian would be more pressing but given our particular circumstances it just offers a low return on investment.