In 1996 I was writing letters to women in Russia and I jumped on a plane and went over to meet one. She was from Ryazan Russia but we met it Moscow. She was supposedly a school teacher 26 and stunning.
Long story short it did not work for us, but you should have seen the women who approached me in the hotel bar after that!
Hehehehe! I, too, jumped on a plane to Moscow to finally meet a Russian lady with whom I had been communicating for about a year. It DID work out. Been married six years now. Her being a 46 year-old English Ph.D may have been a contributing factor to stability. She is now a professor at two universities.