Actually I would say the Cyrillic alphabet makes things easier, because you have new letters for new sounds which is much less confusing than trying to associate an alternative set of sounds with the same alphabet.

The grammar can be tricky but it's not as bad as it's reputation. I mean I failed to learn French at school (I got a "D" grade) but I'm beginning to get the hang of Russian so it can't be all that hard!

To be honest when it comes to understanding and being understood vocabulary is king. So you can start to communicate quite early on and be content for the grammar to fall in to place at a later stage. Also in my experience Russians are so overjoyed when they meet someone who can speak the language even at an intermediate level!

I'm really enjoying Russian, so I definitely recommend people give it a go :-)

I am enjoying the process of learning Russian but it is not an easy language and the cases are just too much for me but I am still learning and always motivated. What I don't like to read or maybe I just have a very different point of view, is those people who love saying that the Russian alphabet is easy.

TRUE, it is very easy to memorize the Russian Alphabet and it doesn't even require days, it requires less than 1 hour, that is, to memorize the alphabet and its respective sound.

But I HIGHLY doubt that someone will master fluency in reading within a few hours or day. I have never met someone who can read a Russian text so fluently (not talking about vocabulary and grammar knowledge, only the reading part). It's been months that I've been learning Russia, I learn every day and am always reading, but I am slow at it, I cannot go simply reading because a part of the brain still process the alphabet. Not to mention that O sound which constantly changes when stressed and not stressed and you never know when they will be. 

I would give 1,000 dollars to see someone who learnt the alphabet recently and if he or she can read with fluency without struggling. Learning the alphabet is something, reading is another one! 

I agree that the Cyrillic alphabet is not difficult to learn, but aspects of Russian grammar not mentioned in this article are hard to master.  With each noun being male, female, or neuter and six different cases, it is not easy to learn this aspect of Russian grammar.  Even well educated Russians make mistakes with this aspect of Russian grammar.  

You're welcome, Caroline ;)

LiveLingua, the focus of the article was on the easy things about Russian and not the difficult ones which are usually put forward and scare away lots of students :) By the way, I don't think the cases are the most difficult part of Russian grammar.