Familiar-looking, different sounds
Russian's Cyrillic letters look a little like ours but sound different — 'Р' is an R, 'Н' is an N. Once you crack it, 'privet' (hi) is your first word.
First greetings
'zdravstvuyte' (formal hello), 'privet' (hi), 'spasibo' (thank you), 'da'/'nyet' (yes/no).