Originally Posted by iti-ogo
Yes, this is the characteristic sign of Western European accent in Russian, pronouncing two vowels instead one (like миэниа instead of меня). This is indeed a problem as it really makes speech more difficult to understand. BTW Russian Е, Ё, Ю, Я never do sound as two vowels though sometimes as consonant й + vowel. Are you sure you can hear the difference between soft and hard consonants? Гол and голь, кров and кровь? Those "two-sound letters" make consonants soft, that is all.