Conjugating names.

[thedevilishone.livejournal.com]

How do you conjugate names?? Sometimes when my Russian friend will speak to me, he will say my name differently...

Example: Фелиша to Фелишей.

Thank you.

The definition of Russia

[rita-ivanovna.livejournal.com]

I met a Russian guy today (at an Ecuadorian party, no less) who said he has lived in the States for the last fifteen years but he was "born in Russia." I asked him what part of Russia, and he said Minsk. I would seem to me (an ignorant American) that Minsk is definitely not in Russia. Obviously Belarus was part of the USSR during the time he lived there, but it seemed odd that he would claim to be from Russia. Is it common for people from the former Soviet Union to say they from Russia? Can the two names sometimes be used interchangably? Or was he just assuming I wouldn't know anything about Eastern European geography?

Russian text

[maristella88.livejournal.com]

whenever russian characters come up on my computer they appear for a moment then turn into question marks, any way to sort this out? thanks!