How to call Russia

Basic information about making an international call from USA to Russia.

To place an international call to Russia follow these simple steps:

Figure out how you are going to make that call. Don't just grab your home phone and start dialing, as it might cost you dearly. Your best bet is a phone card for Russia.
Dial 011 for international access on your phone.
Dial the country code. Russia's international code is 7.
Dial the number in Russia: area code then the local number.

If you are calling from the United States to Russia your dialed number should look like this:

011-7-812-123-4567

Some peculiarities about Russian phone numbers:

8 (eight) is the first digit. If you see that the phone number begins with an 8 (eight) simply replace it with 7. You might have a number in Russia that looks like 8-911-555-12-34. The digit 8 preceding the area code (911 happens to be an area code for a mobile phone provider in St. Petersburg, Russia, the significance of it in the US notwithstanding) is used for calls inside Russia. When calling from outside of Russia, substitute 8 with 7. Using the example above, the number you dial should be 7-911-555-12-34.
+ (plus) preceding the number. You will often see in many Russian and other European numbers, the plus sign in front of the phone number, for example +7-495-555-1234. Simply don't worry about it when calling that number. In case you are wondering, you can actually dial the plus on the cell phone in Russia. Not applicable in the US though.