Quote Originally Posted by alexsms View Post
chaika,
long vowels don't exist in the Russian language, and so do short vowels. All vowels in Russian have neutral length. I'd say Russian [у] as in утро is longer than [u] as in put, but shorter than oo [u:] as in boot.
Stressed vowels are always longer than unstressed. Prestressed is longer than other unstressed. The English sound [u:] can be probably found after soft consonants in stressed syllables. Because Russian у is a more back sound.