Price
Monthly Subscriptions starting at $11.67 per month
Profiles
1000's of profiles, many of which are active. A few fakes.
Security
Part of Cupid Media's circle of dating sites which have a good reputation + much less fake profiles on this site.
Allows Direct Contact?
Yes
Summary
Russian Cupid is one of the largest sites for meeting women in and around the former Soviet Union. There are thousands of profiles on the site, and very few appear to be fake.
The site is run by an Australian company with a long standing reputation for providing straightforward international dating sites since 2000.
The site is of an appropriate quality and provides a much needed answer to the problem of how to connect with and meet sincere Russian women abroad.
International dating in Russia: don't go in blind
For the past two decades Russia has been one of the most popular destinations for Western men looking for a cross-cultural relationship, second only to the Philippines and more recently Ukraine.
The advent of the internet saw a boom in internet dating sites, romance tours, and introduction agencies...all of which promised men a quick and easy way to meet, date, and maybe even marry beautiful and feminine Russian women.
Unfortunately the vast majority of these sites and services were unethical and sought to exploit honest and desperate men alike by squeezing as many dollars from them as possible. From PLC scams to professional daters, the traps were set and many a western men fell for them. Millions of dollars were made since the mid 1990's, and millions of dollars are still made today by less than scrupulous dating sites.
So is there any hope for an honest guy looking to find a serious relationship with a Russian woman?
Да! (yes)
In this review we're taking a look at one of the few upfront and honest sites for Russian dating: Russian Cupid (RC). RC stands as the largest non PLC dating site for Western men looking to connect with women in Russia and throughout the former Soviet Union.
Features
For the most part Russian Cupid works much like any other standard internet dating site. You create a profile and browse the profiles of other members with a free account. To send or received messages with other members you will need a premium monthly subscription.
A walk through of the search engine used on all Cupid Media sites
App
The site is also accessible via a mobile app. The site features translate well to the mobile platform, as the app works much the same way as the site.
Subscription levels
There are 3 subscription levels to choose from when using Russian Cupid: the standard subscription, the gold subscription, and the platinum subscription.
Standard subscription (free)
The standard subscription is free. All that's required is your name and email address. At the standard level you can browse and search profiles, express interest, and communicate with women who have a paid subscription (most will not).
Platinum subscription
A platinum subscription gives you all the perks from the gold level in addition to providing you with some advantages over other members.
This includes things like ranking your profile over other profiles, highlighting your profile, providing more space for you to write in your profile, and (most notably) translation of messages into your native language.
Which level is the best value?
Our vote for the best value is for the gold level subscription. With the gold level you have all the features you need to connect with Russian women.
The platinum features are beneficial, but not absolutely necessary. The most useful feature at this level is probably the translation feature. However we usually recommend that men who are serious about meeting women overseas only communicate with women they can easily speak with (either the man speaks good Russian or the woman speaks good English).
The reason behind this to help protect yourself against dating scams (of which there are many in the Russian speaking world). When you don't need a translator it's a lot easier to read the situation and connect with the women. Also the mere use of a translator is a common scam tactic in itself.
Honesty
Russian Cupid charges an upfront monthly subscription with no hidden fees for messages or chats. This means there's no danger of PPL type scams. Also Russian Cupid's parent company Cupid Media has a long standing reputation for providing honest international dating sites (the company operates over 30 different sites).
"Negotiating through the website I see that Cupid passes my first and most important test: they allow direct contact with the women on the website. The worst type of dating agency is one that requires communication between you and the women you contact to be funneled through the agency. Most websites that limit your contact with the women that you are talking to do so because their ladies profiles are fake or they want to “lead you on” in order to get more sales from you"
Profiles
Cupid Media has a system in place on all of their sites to report suspicious activity or outright scams, but they sometimes have a problem with spammy profiles. However that's not the case with RS. Out of all the Cupid sites RC has one of the lowest occurrence of spam and probably one of the highest percentages of seriously minded users.
Usually after making a profile on an international dating site (even most of the other Cupid sites), you're inundated with messages from fake profiles of women who say they think your cute or like your photo (even if you haven't posted any photos or personal information).
On Russian Cupid I made a free account with an empty profile and in the first week I only had 2 messages of interest. Usually the number is 20-50!.
I'm not sure why this is, but I'm not complaining. While we usually recommend Cupid Media's sites, we can highly recommend RC because of the quality of its profiles is higher than normal.
Where are the women on Russian Cupid from?
The women on Russian Cupid largely live in the former Soviet union countries. The majority are from Russian or Ukraine, but there are also significant numbers from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Moldova, and more.
A Closer Look:
Man runs experiment to test the legitimacy and seriousness of Russian Cupid profiles:
Using Russian Cupid safely
Though the fake profile level is low, you still need to exercise caution when using the site. Heed red flags when you see them, and always date honestly and realistically. This will go a long way toward protecting you against scams. Not sure what to look out for? Check out our scam school.
Best way to use Russian Cupid
If you're serious about using Russian Cupid to meet Russian women, here's a quick how-to on a process you can use to date safely and effectively.
Note: this example runs on a 12 week timeline. Feel free to modify it according to you needs. Just remember that the point is to contact women for the purpose of arranging dates face to face in the real world. Don't get stuck chatting to ladies for months only to never visit them!
Phase 1: 12-6 Weeks before your trip
Create a basic list of requirements
The first thing you want to do is to create a general list of criteria for the type of woman you want to meet. emphasis on the word general here. We don't mean pick out things like eye color, height, and occupation.
You should make a list of the basic requirements you'll use to sift through the 1,000s of profiles on RC. Things like age range, whether she has kids or not, relationship status (divorced, widowed, etc), religion, and English level should make up your list.
A Friendly Reminder: Only date women you can communicate with
We advise men to only date women they can easily communicate with in person. Unless you know a foreign language this means dating women with a good level of English.
We advise this because it eliminates the need for hiring a translator; which not only saves you money, but makes you much less vulnerable to the "professional dater" type scams.
Now that you have your list, create a free basic profile on Russian Cupid. Use your requirements to search for women on the site. Make sure that their is a good number of active women on the site who live in or near the city you plan on traveling to.
Verify your city and dating site
If there are enough women who meet your criteria go ahead and green light your trip and purchase your travel arrangements.
If there aren't enough women in the city you chose, try searching near a different city. With other sites I normally recommend that if you can't find enough women in the area you want to travel to, you should try a different site altogether. But in this case you shouldn't have a problem finding a decent number of members on RC. The site has so many active profiles.
Phase 2: 6-4 weeks before your trip
For the next two weeks you want to start putting together the pieces of your personal profile, which you will post to RC once you purchase a premium membership.
This part is a bit more important than most guys think. You site profile is the virtual equivalent of a first impression. Just as there are 1,000's of women on RC, you can bet there are a lot of men using the site too.
How to make a good (virtual) impression
You want to use your profile pics, description, and introductory letter to help you stand out from the pack.
Photos
Typically most guys on Filipino Cupid take a series of selfies on their cell phone, post them on the site, and call it a day. There's nothing wrong with having 1 or 2 natural type photos that aren't all that glamorous, but all your photos shouldn't look like that.
You can do better
To be honest you should probably avoid the whole selfie idea all together. Odds are that you know someone with a half way decent digital camera. Put on a nice shirt and have them take some shots of you.
You don't have to get too fancy with things, just get two portraits, a full body pic, and maybe a candid action shot showing you playing a sport or dressed up for a party (pick something you normally do). Putting in this little bit of extra effort will go a long way toward helping you stand out from the other guys on the site.
Remember:
Ladies on dating sites often put up with a lot of creeps and sleazy guys. Just as you don't want to be bombarded with scammers and bots, a woman doesn't want to bombarded with tasteless or over sexualized messages.
Go the extra mile and to make your profile standout because in the end that's what you would want a woman to do for you.
Profile description tips
Most profiles list desires, hobbies, interests, and something about life style. There's nothing wrong with any of that. One tip here though is to try to get specific when talking about these things.
Many guys will put that they like movies (who doesn't?), you should list some of your favorite movies or genres of film. A lot of guys might say they want a woman with family values. What if you said you value a woman who brings warmth and love to the home? Do you see the pattern here? Be honest, but also be specific.
The introductory letter
Honestly we could write an entire post on how to write an introductory letter (we probably will soon). Because you will be contacting numerous women it's best to write a general introductory letter that you can use as a template.
More or less the letter can follow this pattern. Each item should be about a paragraph long:
- 1Hello I'm....(basic biographical info: age, where you live, height, weight, lifestyle, education, career, religion, etc.)
- 2Paint a picture: Description what you enjoy about your life and lifestyle, and things you do in your city. Give the woman an glimpse into what life would be like with you.
- 3I'm looking for more: Your life is good, but you need/want a ___ woman because____.....(what attributes/character traits are you looking for?)
- 4I'm serious: Talk about how you're a man on a mission and don't want to waste time on online romance. Mention your upcoming trip and its purpose.
- 5Ask her for contact info: This is the part where you transition and ask the woman if she would be willing to contact you and see if there's any chemistry between you.
This is a general outline, but you should get the idea.
Now don't go copy and pasting this template verbatim, and then start spamming every pretty woman you see on the site. Use the template as, well....a template. You should be reading a looking over each profile you message. Incorporate something personal or specific to a woman's profile in your letter to her.
Phase 3: 4 weeks- trip date
This is where you sign up for a premium subscription on Russian Cupid, upload your photos and personal info, and start contacting ladies.
Use the general requirements list you made earlier to inform your search. Be honest and realistic, and stay clear of any red flags.
You'll want to send out a lot of introduction letters, as not all women will respond or be interested in contacting you. If you're taking your time and reviewing each profile like you should, this could take a while.
Make sure the women know that you're planning on meeting multiple women in their city, but that you will only pursue the one you have the most chemistry with.
At this point you should know when you'll be in town so give the dates to the ladies who are interested in meeting you and start arranging dates .
Phase 4: the trip
This is where your hard work, planning, and research pay off! enjoy your dates with the ladies, and always deal honestly with them. If you feel there is chemistry between you and a woman tell her, and ask her if she feels the same way.
If you don't feel things clicking then be honest and tell the lady at the end of your date (make sure you thank her too!).
What other people say about Russian Cupid
"I have two buddies that are looking to the East for a wife and both have signed up at Cupid and both have met women on line. One is chatting exclusively with one woman and another is having many “Skype dates.” I’ve received about a half dozen emails from readers that have also used Cupid and I’ve received good reports from all.
I browsed through the ladies profiles for a few hours and I believe that the profiles I saw were legitimate. The profiles that I saw were on par with other sites that I’ve reviewed and I didn’t see any glaringly obvious “bogus” profiles."
"The major upside of paid dating is you get people serious enough to pay for dating. Tinder, OkCupid, and PlentyOfFish might be fun and popular but girls on there often end up being time-wasters, catfishers, or foreign bride scammers.
Russian Cupid has the added benefit of putting you in touch with your type of girls.
There is no use scrolling through tons of Latinas (for instance) if they are not what you’re looking for. Niche dating gets a bad reputation but at the end of the day we all have our preferences.
Russian Cupid simply does some of the sorting out work for you."
Alternatives to Russian Cupid
Elena's Models has the highest quality profiles and level of safety out of any international dating site. The site was started by Elena Petrova, a Russian wife who created a popular blog for Russian women on how to meet and marry foreigners. Since the company's inception in 1999, Elena's Models has led the way in the international dating industry for honesty, and takes an open stance against PPL sites.
The site features profiles from across the Post-Soviet States, with the majority coming from Russia and Ukraine.
Ukraine Date is also run by Cupid Media and is the sister site of RC. Though it does features some Russian profiles, most of its women are from Ukraine (obviously). The site has a large number of profiles of similar quality as RC. If you're not keen to apply for a visa to Russian then Ukraine and Ukraine Date might be the choice for you.
I love the idea of using a dating site like Russian Cupid, picking a city and going off on my own to meet foreign ladies; but the amount of work, logistics, and fear of the unknown can be a turn off for some guys.
The company I'm about to talk about here solves those problems, and they're an excellent option if you're okay with switching out a trip to Russian with a trip to Ukraine. They take care of your entire trip (minus airfare), and provide everything you need to meet serious Ukrainian women. All you have to do is show up.
Dream Connections is an American based company started by the American/Ukrainian couple Mark and Ana Davis. The company is unique in that they function more like an introduction/matchmaking agency than a romance tour agency (which is good because I don't trust most romance tours).
Each tour has about 15-20 guys and up to 100 or so local ladies. The company screens both men and women for relational intent and basic background information.
They also feature a unique system where each man has a personal translator/personal assistant for the trip. The dating starts off with a series of short speed dating sessions after which men are free to contact interested ladies and go on dates apart from the group.
Conclusion
Russian Cupid is one of the premier dating sites for men looking to meet women in Russia and throughout the Post-Soviet States. The site has a large number of sincere profiles of serious women, and there is a conspicuous absence of fake profiles on the site.
At the end of the day, if you're thinking about dating in the Russian speaking world, you can't go wrong with Russian Cupid.