Marco North, living in Moscow full-time for over 6 years, visiting the country for over 10 years.
Votes by Aaron Ellis, Edwin Khoo, Evgeny Fadeev, Tim Bushell, and 109 more.

There are countless misconceptions about Russia and its people. The way Russians are depicted in film and tv cultivates some disgusting stereotypes. The advent of amateur videos, and social media in general allows the lowest common denominator to become the prime example. I think I need to point out that physicists and artists in Russia may not feel the urge to share their accomplishments on youtube and translate them into English/other languages for foreigners to appreciate their accomplishments. If we take stock of a culture by all of the people posting kitten pictures, and nipple slips on social media, we are all fools.

1. The aggressive, prevalent voices you hear (on Quora for example) represent a minuscule amount of the common person's opinion and experience. In short, 95% of Russia does not really communicate with "the outside world" and the part that does communicate are extremists of some kind, very Pro-Putin or very anti-Putin. So, whatever you think you know is based on a tiny, tiny group that cannot be speaking for more than themselves and those close to them. As Russia is such a diverse, profoundly disparate country it is quite difficult to find any single point or issue that everyone shares. There are churches and communities of Russian Orthodox, Muslims, Jews and even pagans here. Some of their values and perceptions are indeed in agreement within these groups, but even in Moscow there are Jewish organizations that are often in disagreement with other Jewish organizations. So in a mammoth country where everyone tends to have their own opinion (if they are brave enough to share it or not is another question), what is the biggest misconception? That anyone can make a sweeping generalization that is true across these disparate groups. As the saying goes, there is an "ass" in "assumptions".

So, misconception #1 - If you think you "know something" about Russia you are most probably mistaken or are at best are basing your conclusion on a splinter of "fact" that does not represent more than a tiny group.

One of the things I have come to learn in Russia after living here for six years now, is that there always stories, rumors, local news reports, International news reports, other news reports that conflict with previous ones - leading me to one truth. No one every really knows what happened, why it happened, who did or did not do something or if it will happen again (see this answer). The recent pile of scandals at the Bolshoi are a great example of this. Some say no acid was ever thrown on anyone's face. Some say the wrong guy was charged. Maybe the whole thing was a plot. Maybe, maybe, maybe...is all anyone can say. Base your own conclusions on locals who cannot say more than maybe...see what that gets you... it gets you a lot of angry, defensive Russians (on places like Quora) saying you are an idiot.