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What?!

But unstressed e is pronounced like [i]. So ShakeyX is right.

The tip of the toungue is closer to the teeth, than for English r, but that's my assumption only.
How did you achieve good pronunciation in Russian and understanding of Russian phonology?

ж is close to English r. You can start pronouncing ш as unvoiced English r, it will be good approximation.

There are as many vowel sounds in Russian as you wish, but there are only 6 (some say 5) vowel phonemes which can distinguish words.