I lived in Russia when I was a kid in the 90s. To be honest I almost never saw black people in my neck of the woods during the whole decade that I lived there. Most of my assumptions about black people came from American or other international media(good or bad). And we were extremely ignorant of the US race relations. This limited and kind of stereotyped diet of exposure can lead to people being more comfortable with more overt forms of discrimination that wouldn’t fly in the US. That said, I don’t know if it would cut in the same way. Russian culture is also not a very warm and welcoming one to strangers by default. America has a culture of putting on a smile and being open, Russia not so much. Because of this cultural difference it is very easy for some to assume Russians are cold or that the perceived poor treatment is personally intentional(not saying assholes don’t exist btw).

Russia has racism but from my experience it was heavily driven by national origin rather than skin color. Some nationalities and ethnic groups were hated more than others. Some people were very entrenched in their hateful views, others just made jokes. Here is the kicker though, even though it was kind of expected to shit on outsiders publicly among friends(while also proclaiming that Russians are better), I found majority of people to be pretty respectful privately(especially with tourists).

I think if you stick to areas that are used to dealing with tourists, you might do better. People might bend over backwards to please you depending on which country you’re from or give you an ear full on how your county is a mess. Some people might try to get money from you.