Tommaso would disagree, but my feeling is that you should go to meet the woman in her country first. A chance to see her culture, friends, family. To me it is important to link the two families and cultures. I am not looking to simply pluck a Russian flower.
And yes, there are plenty of Russian dating scams. You will find scammers on this site, but they seem to respond quite quickly to them when identified.
There are lots of great girls here. Good luck to you.