The Russian alphabet is Cyrillic, with 33 letters. Good news: if you know Uzbek Cyrillic you know almost all of them — only two letters aren't in Uzbek Cyrillic: Щ and Ы. (And Uzbek's Ў, Қ, Ғ, Ҳ don't exist in Russian.)

Group 1: look like Latin letters and are read the same

Letter	Sound	Example
А а	a	мама — mum
К к	k	кот — cat
М м	m	мир — world
О о	o	он — he
Т т	t	там — there
Е е	ye / e	нет (nyet) — no

Group 2: "false friends" — familiar shape, different sound

Letter	Sound	Example
В в	v	вода (vada) — water
Н н	n	нос (nos) — nose
Р р	r	рука (ruka) — hand
С с	s	сок (sok) — juice
У у	u	утро (utra) — morning
Х х	kh	хлеб (khlyeb) — bread

Group 3: new letters (the most important)

Letter	Sound	Example
Б б	b	брат — brother
Г г	g	город (gorad) — city
Д д	d	дом — house
Ж ж	zh	журнал — magazine
И и	i	имя (imya) — name
Л л	l	лампа — lamp
П п	p	папа — dad
Ч ч	ch	чай — tea
Ш ш	sh	школа — school
Щ щ	shch (a soft, long "sh")	борщ — borscht
Ы ы	between i and ы (an "i" with the tongue pulled back)	мы — we
Я я	ya	я — I
Ю ю	yu	юг — south
Ё ё	yo	ёлка — fir tree
Э э	e	это (eta) — this
Ь ь	the soft sign — not pronounced itself	день (dyen') — day

Stress and the "o" that turns into "a"

Stress (ударение) matters a lot in Russian: an unstressed о is usually read as "a":

молоко́ — "malako" (milk)
хорошо́ — "kharasho" (good)
спаси́бо — "spasiba" (thank you)

Dictionaries mark the stress with an accent (´). Lots of listening is the best way to learn stress.

Group 1: look like Latin letters and are read the same

Group 2: "false friends" — familiar shape, different sound

Group 3: new letters (the most important)

Stress and the "o" that turns into "a"

Check yourself