Russia

Some folks here can weigh in with travel in Russia. But the basic is that it is very restricted. You'll need a visa and have a set itinerary of where you are going with set arrival and departure dates/locations. Helsinki, Poland and Moscow are quite seperate physically. You'll most likely need to fly between each. Within Poland you can take busses or trains depending on where you are going.

Yes, I agree with above poster. Some of the most fascinating moments of my traveling experiences have been in Russia, but you have to pre-arrange everything- it's not like the EU, where the rules are much less stringent. I would recommend using a travel agent that specializes in Russian travel. You can find some recommendations in Lonely Planet's Russia edition. Russian trains are remarkable in the their punctuality (even better than Deutsche Bahn, in my opinion)- if only the rest of the country worked so well- but they're not nearly as fast as some western European trains. They're a pretty good way to get around the country, but because distances are so vast (even in European Russia), expect some long travel times. If you were thinking of taking a train from St. Petersburg to some place in Poland- that's an extremely long haul, even more from Moscow. For example, it takes about 24 hours to reach Warsaw from St. Petersburg by rail, going through Lithuania. Even longer through Belarus, where you can expect a shake-down by the border police.