ah, so you want an easy way out, huh ?

i don't think so, Russian verbs are quite varied due to use of prefixes, so different types of actions are usually denoted by different verbs, which nevertheless may have common stem

when I try to think of my own vocabulary nothing comes to mind I'd be using universally

English is relatively rich in such words: go, get, fix, put, press, stand probably because it lacks the mechanism of word formation through prefixes, so it needs another method
but the method of prefixes is both blessing and curse, cause as it seems to me, at a certain point it starts to stiffen the development of lexicon

speaking of prefixes and stems, here're some translations of 'to set':

вставлять
выставлять
переставлять
подставлять
приставлять
проставлять

http://multitran.ru/c/m.exe?l1=2&l2=1&s=set