"What about moving funds from abroad and opening a local bank account ? Given the present issues between the west and Russia." That gets into the details of life that can change very rapidly as a result of geopolitics.
If you're an American most banks won't open a bank account for you because of the US's FATCA legislation. That's true in most European countries as well: the US's crazy laws make banks in many countries unwilling to open accounts for individual Americans. That's a weird thing in Russia because Russian banks shouldn't really give a hoot about US laws since they're now so disconnected from the US, but I guess that has to do with inertia.
The solution most Americans I know in Russia use is to have a Russian spouse, significant other, or just a friend through whom they do their local banking, like getting a bank card so you can do contactless payments for shopping.
If you're from some other country, it's easy to open a bank account if you have a residence permit of some kind. I think (but am not sure) it's also easy if you just have a longer tourist or education visa.
As for transferring funds into Russia, most foreigners these days just bring cash with them, at least enough to live on for a year or so. If they intend to move here they will be earning cash locally so no issues about moving money here. Just make sure to declare the cash you're carrying in Customs on entry if you're carrying more than $10,000 in cash.
Those who depend on income from abroad, like digital nomads who live in Russia and work remotely, either travel abroad every now and then to visit family there, in which case they can pick up cash and bring it here, or they use bank transfers (less and less reliable depending on the foreign country), or they simply transfer crypto currency like bitcoin. It seems like the younger they are the more they use crypto.
Change money overseas into crypto and then you can send the crypto here in seconds. Once you have crypto here you can change it into cash rubles the same day in most midsized to large sized Russian cities. If you live in some out of the way village you can take the train into a nearby city to get cash rubles for crypto.
As for learning the language, you're right that you can get a head start with good online learning tools if you have the discipline to use those. Once you're here expats agree the best way to learn Russian fast is to make sure your girlfriend (or boyfriend, if you're a lady, which seem to immigrate less frequently except with their significant others...) speaks only Russian and no English. :-)