Conditions in Russia (Moscow)
There are changes going on in Russia at the moment and, as it stands, all casinos will be closed by July 2009 and moved to 4 specific areas in the suburbs of Russia.
In the mentime, new legislation means that a casino can only operate if it reaches a minimum criteria on floorspace. A lot of the smaller casinos do not have this amount of floorspace so are faced with being shut down. However, the bigger casinos, which tend to be far more trustworthy regarding payment etc, are staying put for the time being.
Most of the predominant casinos in Moscow have removed the ES against Ace but still allow SE against dealer face card. Generally, rules are 6 deck, ENHC, S17, DAS, DOA, ES10 so the casinos still offer a good game although not as good as in the past when the player had an edge off the top of around 0.2% (o.5% in one place I know).
If you stick to the high profile casinos then the worst that's likely to happen is that you would get barred. Most of these places are run by European and US management (along with Russian) and will follow the tradition of the casinos in the US. If you search out the smaller casinos, that may have better rules, then you may take a risk in being able to get your money.
One other thing, if you go, is to declare your money going into Russia as you are only allowed to take out up to $10,000 extra. If you take out more than $3,000 (but less than $10,000) then you have to fill in a form at the airport. I forgot one time and the customs took about $1,000 from me (I only had $6,500 on me at the time). So, if you go with $10,000 then you can bring back $20,000 as long as you have declared the $10,000 going in and sign the form coming out.
Hope this helps.