This is interesting... what is FLUENT ? what defines it ? If it means knowing everyword in the language ? well that's jsut impossible. If it means being able to understand all the words that are spoken, that's nearly impossible also. I'm a very good speaker of english (sometimes my lazy typing skillz might not boast that fact, but i really am =P) and i will find words i don't know yet all the time. If an everage 20 year old native speaker in english took an advanced college course in english, im sure they would find all sorts of new words they had never even heard of.

So you can't expect to do the same in a foriegn language. The best you can do is just memorize as many words as you can (after you have a good grasp on grammar of course). Think of it as a game. The more words you know, the less ability russians have to choose words you don't know and confuse you =P. after you learn enough words, you'll understand what they are saying.

Besides russian has more words for everyday use than english does. So, right there is a challenge.
yep...