Moscow after RS tour to St. Petersburg?

We were in Russia in September. St.Petersburg and Moscow on our own and then cruise on Volga from Moscow to Astrakhan. From St.Petersburg to Moscow we went by bullet train Sapsan. It makes it in 4 hours. All other trains in 8 to 10 hours. We reserved accommodation in St.Petersburg and Moscow through express to Russia (travel agency in S.P.)Here is their website: http://www.expresstorussia.com/
Through them we also had driver Vladimir who was waiting for us at Moscow railroad station and took us to our apartment. He had keys. Then after few days he took us to the cruise ship. If you don't speak Russian you will definitely need a guide in Moscow. Almost nobody speaks English and everything is written in cyrilic (street signs, in Metro, in museums etc.). Thank God I speak and read enough Russian to get around. Moscow is huge, sights are far apart and many. Moscow has enormous traffic jams. Metro is palace like, fast, efficient and cheap but you need to be able to read cyrilic alphabet. Metro stations are far apart, you will walk a lot. I wish we had more time in Moscow. We spent 5 days there and barely touched a surface. Because Moscow is so huge it takes a lot of time to walk to Metro and then to get to your destination. Sometimes you have to change trains, walk through long tunnels between different lines and then spend quite some time on escalators. Metro in Moscow is very deep. Despite all that Metro is usually fastest mode of transportation because of chronic traffic jams. Hotels and restaurants in Moscow are surprisingly expensive. There is the biggest McDonald in the world there and price there is similar as here. With the knowledge I have now I would give myself at least one week to ten days to see what I want.

I looked at the RS tour you are on and it only seems you have about 3 days in St. Pete. I would stay at least an extra day or two. I would try to learn some of the Cyrillic alphabet, its really not that hard, so you can make out some words in the metro etc. in Moscow.
This tour company http://www.toursinrussia.com/ in Moscow has gotten good reviews and they have a ton of walking tours and day trips. Are you really into Russian history, etc.? If so you could do to stay longer than 3 days, if you are just wanting to see Red Square, etc. I guess 3 days would be ok. Don't forget about the Russian Museum in St. Pete the Hermitage is mostly Western European art. Check out inyourpocket.com website also for Moscow and St. pete.

Russia requires a visa, rules are a pain (we've just done this), requires an invitation from where you are staying. Find out how the visa for St. Petersburg is being done, it is probably through the tour, and for those days only. And if St. Petersburg is the last stop, will require you to leave that day. if so, this will likely require a new visa. Visa process can take over two months.
You can look at the web site for "Travisa" to get some info, but you also need to know what is being done by the tour group.

"...requires an invitation from where you are staying...." Most Visa Service places will provide the invitation from a pre-arranged hotel in Russia. You're under no obligation to stay at the hotel the invitation originates from.

Based on your address you will be applying for russian visa at Russian Consulate in Seattle. Recently there were some changes in visa policy. You can read about visa process, guided Moscow tours and much more on the website of express to russia which I mentioned in my first answer. Russian visa policy is interestingly reciprocal. They are asking the same questions their citizens are asked in the application for US visa, we pay the same amount as they do, etc. I thought it was funny when I read that Australian citizens are required to have their application in Russian because Russian citizens were required to have their application for Australian visa in English. Processing of our visas took one week.

Ilja - I read a blog that described the Russian visa process as tit-for-tat. For example, they believe the US govt makes it difficult and expensive for Russians to visit the US so their process is designed to be reciprocal and equally annoying for US citizens who want to travel to to Russia.
LOL - Sounds like they are not happy with Australia either.

I went on the RS St. Petersburg tour. I wish I had added a couple of days at the end of the tour to stay in St. Petersburg. I wish I had gone on to Moscow. Two of the tour members did go on to Moscow. One went by plane and the other by train. It seemed the train was less of a hassle.

I went through an agency to get my visa when i went to Moscow. It was a pretty easy and painless process; EXCEPT: Thee was one official form that i had to fill out. It was one of those Adobe PDF files that you can fill in on your computer and then print out for a signature. I filled it in, printed it, signed it and sent it to the agency. They called me a few days later and told me the form would not be acceptable to the Russians. It was required that the border be 3mm or some such exact number and unless you have yor print settings set a particular way you end up with 4mm on one side or somethng of the sort. I asked if she was serious and she said that's how serious the Russians were being. I set the printer accordingly, printed, signed and resent. I had the visa in about 10 days.