Dear U.S.Citizen, Kiev and Ukraine are not in Russia. Please, study geography, and tHEN come to a safe country, RUSSIA! See Red Square, The Bolshoi Theatre, eat some blinni and pelmini. Try borsch (without a T here). Pushkin Museum and Park of People's Achievements, the Moscow Zoo and the planetarium. Avoid Macdonalds. It is a good pee place, though.
EDIT- An added thought... where did your parents learn Russia is so bad? I have been in Russia (many cities) since 1991, and am always out late. And it is dark at 5 pm, right now.
I absolutely love that last sentence...
"... hoping to go to Kiev OR Ukraine next year".
Oh, yes soon my ruined, tortured, robbed and raped hometown Kiev will be liberated and become Russia... just like it always was. It'll be the 4th city of federal importance ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_cit... ).
No offence, but say hi to your poor parents and tell them they need psychiatric help. Please, no offence, it's not your or their fault. As I've said in my previous answers: Hollywood and jWestern media are brain-damaging... they cause paranoid russophobia.
Currently Russian Federation is safe, but okraine along with Kiev is not. Don't go here this year. Hope your "prediction" will soon come true. Even if that "or" was a little mistake.
I live in Russia (Kuzbass) 20 years and i'm still alive. You want visit here for several week (if not less). What can happen with you for a couple weeks in Russia?...
Russia is not a good place to visit. If you DO go, you must stay in known tourist areas, or even go on a tour of russia where you're with other americans or other people visiting, and with a tour guide that knows the areas you go in.
