Thank you for the extensive explanations.

As I suspected, language is a main issue. Your story reminds me of the case here: there was a relative large british community living here who never bothered to learn the local language. And they never integrated well and complained about "cultural differences".

I think it's possible to learn a fair language base using online tools. I did that to learn some greek, through Assimil, and coupling with a revising tool, Anki. And some good dictionaries. And practicing some hours per day. But of course, nothing replaces a full immersion among native speakers...

What about moving funds from abroad and opening a local bank account ? Given the present issues between the west and Russia.