a) You don't have to type Russian characters. There's a little switch that lets you input everything in English transliteration. b) There's an explanation right at the beginning on how to install a Russian keyboard layout: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/11449014
Re:How Duolingo got 110M users
by schakraberty on Thursday March 03, 2016 @08:09PM
(#11221334)
You can try downloading a virtual keyboard in Russian that works better. Many free resources on the net.
Was I doing it wrong?