There was social pressure to mask. There was tape on the floor of every public place. There was testing, and I know someone who got very sick only having been repeatedly tested and never vaccinated. There were government jobs that required vaccination, unfortunately.

That said, compliance was laughably less than in the west. Don’t believe the official vaccination numbers for a minute. Masks worn on the chin were considered fully masked in almost every situation. And I can’t recall a single time when more than a very few people paid any attention to distance at all.

The Russian language is quite difficult to learn, but it is possible.