Speaking of trivial inconveniences, the processing fees are nothing compared to dealing with checks via Russian banks -- it's a huge hassle.
For example, if you want to cash in a foreign check, they can't just give you the money -- they send the check back to the issuer for 'approval', who will send it back with the approval letter -- and when it's back, the bank charges you about 25% commission. I learned it the hard way, and never dealt with checks again.
As for issuing checks, I doubt that Russian banks can do that at all -- at least I haven't heard of anyone making payments by checks issued by Russian banks.
I have an arrangement with an American supporter of the Future of Humanity Institute. Each month I send money to FHI, he sends it to SIAI, and each institute gets tax benefits they wouldn't get from donor's outside their own country.
If it's worth it to avoid the commission and for possible tax benefits, maybe you could find a trustworthy American supporter of a good Russian cause?
From Michael Anissimov on the Singularity Institute blog:
Thanks to generous contributions by our donors, we are only $11,840 away from fulfilling our $100,000 goal for the 2010 Singularity Research Challenge. For every dollar you contribute to SIAI, another dollar is contributed by our matching donors, who have pledged to match all contributions made before February 28th up to $100,000. That means that this Sunday is your final chance to donate for maximum impact.
Funds from the challenge campaign will be used to support all SIAI activities: our core staff, the Singularity Summit, the Visiting Fellows program, and more. Donors can earmark their funds for specific grant proposals, many of which are targeted towards academic paper-writing, or just contribute to our general fund
[Continue reading at the Singularity Institute blog.]