Although I brought medical item with me, I was able to find most of these in the mall. Items such as immodium, asprin, etc but you would need to learn the alphabet - for example, immodium is spelled the same but in the cyrillic aplhabet.
Fortunately :-) I didn't need the Immodium!
A digital camera is suggested and perhaps a video camera. You can bring a film based camera as developing is available in the city. Have your photos developed before leaving Russia, in the event they are bad photos, as you will not have the opportunity to take them again once you leave.
LEARN THE ALPHABET! it is not too difficult. As an example I have included a photo of the sign from the front of the hotel where I stayed. It translates, letter-per-letter, as "Turist Otel". Not too difficult, right? "Tourist Hotel" the "b" at the end of "Otelb" is silent, it preserves the hard consonant sound of the preceeding "l".









