Thread: Russians and English?

1) Is English as hard to learn for Russians as Russian is for speakers of English and other West European languages?
2) Is it necessary now to speak good English in order to have a successful professional career in Russia?

(If so, the achievements of those who are fluent are truly outstanding!)

I forgot if I had already answered this question. So, I'll say it again.
We had pretty strong English at school. At the very beginning we learnt the IPA symbols used for English and used to write transcriptions at the lessons. The pronunciation was difficult of couse. The spelling was terrible: words did not stick into my mind and learning words was very difficult.
Grammar wasn't so difficult, except for articles. Several years had passed untill I started understand what they are needed for. The difference between the Past Simple and Present Perfect, and some other tenses could be a little bit tricky. Not to mention prepositions. Conversion was not so easy either.
In general, English is as difficult to us as Russian is to you.
I think officially English is not mandatory yet but it is taught everywhere since the second grade.