Well, let's be systematic about this. :) I'd say, there are two cases:

1) You are a beginner

In this case, you want somebody who can tolerate your taking a lot of time formulating your thoughts and making lots of mistakes - which is, honestly, quite boring to listen to. I'd say, there are three kinds of people who will listen to you:

a) a person whose language skills in English are similar to your skills in Russian - this way you will be mutually helping each other;

b) a person who likes you for some personal reasons - your Russian friend, girlfriend, coworker who values your help in other matters, etc.;

c) a person who is in a situation where they can't run away from you - like, eating in a dining hall (this happened to me quite often in my grad school, when students from the Department of Slavic Languages practiced their Russian talking to me - that is, they were talking, and I was mostly eating, trying to look not-too-bored :)).

2) You are fluent

In this case, nothing prevents you from speaking Russian to the person who speaks English, even if they keep speaking English. They can't force you to not speak Russian, and most of the value for you comes from your speaking to them, not your listening to them (in most cases, you can listen to more interesting and varied stuff on the Internet anyway). Or, if you REALLY want them to speak Russian to you, just tell them and explain to them that you want to practice. If they tell you that they can't do it because they have fits of shame and disgust every time they speak their native language, they have some mental issues, so you probably don't want to speak to them anyway. :)

Hope that was helpful. :)

-Sergei

P.S. If you want to check what is offensive to Russians and what is not, just replace "Russian" with "American" (or whatever group of people you most identify with) and see whether you would be offended if a foreign guy said it to you. There are some cultural differences, but I can honestly say that in all the cases in which I was really offended, the person who talked to me would definitely be offended if I said something like that to them about their country, ethnicity or culture.

I cant say I've had the same experience as you. Every single Russian person I've have meet, or Russian speaking person has been quite happy to speak Russian with me, even with my limited Russian. Also having just spent two weeks in Russia, I can say that almost every single person I met, was friendly and talkative with me. It has changed my view of Russia. Truth be told, the only scary thing about Russia, is the roads, I have never seen such bad driving and disregard for road laws lol. I should probably add that I am a very social person, in my job I sometimes meet hundreds of different people every week. I think I come across well face to face. Not everyone is like that.

I had another problem, for me it was more difficult when I tried to find someone who speaks english. Finding Russian who are willing to help it was no problem for me:) try Interpals:) LingQ gave me a lot of words and confidence etc. but interlocutors I found on this side Interpals ;) And dont forget also people from Belarus, Kazakhstan etc are speaking Russian;) And from my experience are much more open then people from Great Britain, America etc. for me is just stereotype that Russian are cold. And I also must be honest I also find people from Great Britain, America who are willing to help but it was quite more difficult:) And from my experience they are proud when are speaking Russian:)

I hope this is gonna to help you in someway:)

Hi! =)) I'm from Moscow, Russia with my native being Russian.

Your ideas really made me give it quite a consideration, actually! ;-)

I guess, I managed to come to the point for you to start an explanation.

No one here, in this thread, have ever mentioned there had been NO business in this country EVER SINCE 1917 ! Of course, I'm talking about legit private business.

I think, the mere mention of this fact alone may become a real starting point for your understanding of the reasons for the strange conduct you described.

My feeling is, that fact alone explains a whole lot for you.

Surely, sometimes there are also practical reasons for us, Russians, to speak English to each other. I had a talk on the Internet with a guy from Moscow who is in another country now and, hence, has no Russian speaking environment at all. Why should I bother him speaking Russian, if all he uses now is English? ;-) We surely speak English with each other, as it's rather unnatural for him now to speak Russian, although it's his native language! ;-)

As for the Russian language itself in its linguistic aspect, not only do I use Russain as my communications means, it's my production tool as well, if I may call it this way! =))) Being an interpreter and translation editor, I have to know Russian much much better than an average Russian-speaking native. That's what I'm paid for, after all ! ;-)

Ah, it's just now that I've read the last but one paragraph in your post; why, it's only natural for me to speak Russian, both oral and written! =))) I'm talking about all our adjective and noun cases and verb conjugation paradigms! ;-) No problem! I'm always there to help! ;-)

Hi all, what can I say about russians? I'm russian :) and I would say at the first time russians meet somebody they can be very caucious but if you met russian closer he certaintly will talk all about himself even very person information and will be waiting the same thing from you. And of course we proud of speaking russian language. I wish all people in my country know english so we can understand each other better. If you want speak russian with somebody for practicing - here I am.

Bye! From Russia with love! :) and sorry for my english.

I am proud cause this is my native tounge

Here is a comedy video which portrays typical Russian tourists abroad (video is in Russian, but you will get the picture):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wovKheP_8c

And it is not too exaggerated (you can get 2 week, 4* Hotel, All Inclusive tour to Egypt or Turkey for like 400 EUR, so every redneck can afford it). It is one of the reasons why I try to avoid speaking Russian when traveling.

And many Russians who have emigrated to USA actually aren't Russians, but "Russian speaking people from the former Eastern Block" (a lot of them Jews) and they don't like to be called "Russians" (and ironically they didn't like to be called "Jews" while they were still in the Eastern Block :).

P.S. I'm not trying to offend anyone, these are just my observations.

WE have in Russia different people like in every other countries.

We had a 'big Russian world' in the Soviet Union that was collapsed. However, a lot of Russian up to now feel it like a big lost. It isn't about the communist regime, but it's about a large area where Russian was the main language.

And after this collapse Russian naivly thought that West Europe and the USA would meet them like 'brothers' because they abanded the communist ideology. When they understood that nobody were ready to meet them as 'brothers' they were offended like some children and with that you can understand the phenomen of Putin.

The today's sanctions don't also contribute to make Russians more open to the western people because the Russian think that it is a durty geopolitic game of the USA against Russia, and Ukraine was only an excuse to start it in the full size.

When some Russian emigrate they would lite to integrate as soon as possible into the new country and a new lifestyle that's why thery don't want rto speak Russian though I believe that it's a bit stupid.

But in any case we have a great culture and first of all the great literature in Russian. And that's why the learning of Russian is worth to start or to continue.

Russians are not what I would call super approachable. Of all the people whose language I have learned, they are generally the least happy when you speak to them in a random encounter. This is not always the case but often,unlike Chinese, Japanese, Brazilians, even French people. On the other hand, once you get to know them, they are very friendly, encouraging of your efforts to learn their language, and in the end no so different from other people. In other words, you are going to like some, and not like others, as is always the case.

I guess that many Americans still think that all Russians are commies, vodka drinking drunks, and the most harshest and coldest people in the world. I haven't met a Russian native face-to-face yet, so I have no idea how they are. But evgueny40 seems like a very friendly person, so I guess had some Russian people contact behind the computer screen.

With the conflict between Ukraine and Russian, Americans are becoming more hateful towards anything Russian. Blaming Russians for that plane that went down, even though there is prove that it was the Ukrainians that shot it down.

For me, I'm going to defend Russia on that subject against the Ukrainians.

http://mato48.blogspot.com/2014/08/did-ukraine-shoot-down-mh17.html

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/08/evidence-now-conclusive-2-ukrainian-government-fighter-jets-shoot-malaysian-airliner-buk-missile-ground-shot.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmQ_4pf9hV8