I know some Polish and Russian. Russian in a PITA because of the vowels being dependent on the stress. At least in Polish, once you get the hang of it, you can pretty much sound it out.
Russian in a PITA (Plug in the Answer) because of the vowels being dependent on the stress
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Not in my experience - I used to be fluent in Russian 50 years ago. Some words (not common) have over 50 letters, one or two have over 100, depending on grammar form (adverb, noun, verb etc), gender, declension, motion, etc. Many vowels are silent, elided, or not pronounced at all. Polish is baby Russian.