Well, I'm American and I lived in Russia for two years and I can honestly say that I never, not even once, encountered someone who was rude or impatient with me when I spoke Russian. Everyone was patient, no matter how much I butchered the language. Russians are usually very understanding of foreigners - with the exception of some countries they have been at war with. The situation may have been different for me if I was from the Caucasus for example.

Americans seem a lot less tolerant of foreigners to me than Russians do. I have seen Americans treat foreigners extremely rudely. I would be a lot more afraid of coming to America and not speaking English or speaking poor English, than traveling to Russia and speaking limited Russian. Truly!