Most of new Russian series are located on Premier, IVI and Kinopoisk HD. Those are online cinemas like Netflix. All the Russian movies and series are without any subtitles. If it fits you, I would really recommend subscribing because it has a nice collection of trending titles and the prices are ridiculously low - from 130 to 200 rub per month (about 1,5-2,5$).

 

I will update this post once I have watched something good.

In random order:

 

To the Lake (Эпидемия)

Cool series. Couldn't stop watching.

A sci-fi thriller. 2020.

Plot. An unknown virus turns Moscow into a city of the dead. There is no electricity, money has lost all value and those who are still not infected, are desperately fighting for food and fuel.

On Netflix with English and Russian subs

On Premier, no subs

 

Call-Centre (Колл-Центр)

A horror thriller escape series much like "The Belko Experiment". Cool series. Couldn't stop watching. 

Thriller, drama. 2020

On Premier, no subs

 

Infidalities (Измены)

Compelling and funny

On Premier, no subs

More links

 

Regular Woman (Обычная женщина)

Funny series worth seeing. Russian version of Breaking Bad about a family woman running a prostitution business.

Criminal drama, comedy. 2018

On Premier

More links

 

The Method (Метод)

Good thriller-detective series with a vulgar sick alcohol addicted but charismatic and ingenious detective as a main character. It's also nice that you can see a lot of different places of modern western Russia. 

Criminal, thriller, detective. 2015

On Netflix with subs

On IVI 

I am providing the following info as a result of searching for resources, looking up some reviews of Russian users and browsing the online cinema websites. Personally, I regularly use KinopoiskHD, Premier, IVI and torrents.

While making this selection I took into account the following criteria and information:

• Website language
• Subtitles availability
• Content origin
• Content type
• Searching tools
• Free content availability
• Paid content
• Available interfaces

*I am based in Russia. Part of the content of these websites might be not available in your country. So please, let me know if the websites work properly in your country and about the availability of the content (inna.buge@yandex.ru)

 

WITH SUBTITLES. Free Content Available

 

Russian Film Hub

 

Best free online cinema with various subtitles with a wide collection of mostly classic Russian films.

 

Website language

English

Subtitles availability

English and others.

Content

Large catalogue of Soviet and Russian movies, animation, series and documentaries. Mostly classics. No hot and latest movies and series.

Searching tools

Convenient search by categories: genre, decade, country and subtitles. Search bar. Rating system.

Free content availability

Vast majority of the movies are embedded YouTube content from big Russian film studios that are free. No registration needed.

Paid content

There are movies to rent or buy.

Available interfaces

Web browser

 

MEGOGO

 

Best online cinema for those who prefer mass immersion watching content without subs or with Russian subs yet having a navigation in English. Plus it's a wide choice among both Russian and foreign content and a large variety of content types.

 

Website language

English, Russian and other languages.

Subtitles availability

A lot of movies in Russian (native or dubbed) with Russian subs. There is a number of movies with audio descriptions.

Content

Big collection of titles including Soviet movies and modern Russian and foreign movies, series, TV-shows, TV-channels, documentaries and even popular bloggers. No hot-hot-latest titles though.

Collections potentially useful for Russian learners:

Movies of Soviet film studio Mosfilm

Collection "Year of Russian cinema"

Collection "New Russian Movies"

Collection "Russian Comedies of the New Millennium"

Searching tools

Search only by selections and in the search bar. No catalogue or categories. No search by language, countries or subs. Reviews.

Free content availability

Part of content is free. No registration needed. No ads (verification needed)

Paid content

Some movies are available only for subscribers (397 RUB per month = around 5$). Some movies are to buy forever. No adds.

Available interfaces

Web browser, iOS, Android, Media players, Apple TV, Android TV

 

WITH SUBTITLES. No Free Content

 

Soviet Movies Online* 

 

Best online cinema for a reasonable price with high-quality translations in English and many other languages, good video quality and good yet not very large selection of classic and trending Russian movies and series.

 

Website language

English

Subtitles availability

English (and more) subtitles

Content

Mostly Soviet classics and modern Russian movies and series highly rated in the West.

Searching tools

Search by genres, categories. Search bar.

Free content availability

You can watch one movie for free.

Paid content

Subscription is around 5$ per month. (verification needed)

Available interfaces

Web browser (+ ??? Verification needed)

 

*I can not access this website for months for some reason. But my students can. So I wrote everything I remember about this website. Please, have a look at this one to verify my info and write your observations in the comments.

 

NO SUBTITLES. Free Content Available

 

IVI

 

Website language

Russian

Subtitles availability

Russian subtitles are only in some foreign movies only for subscribers.

Content

Soviet, Russian and foreign movies, series, animation, TV-channels, TV-shows and documentaries.

Searching tools

Search by genres, countries, other categories, selections. Search bar. Rating system, reviews.

Free content availability

There is a number of free movies with long ads in the beginning.

Paid content

Movies for subscribers (399 RUB per month = around 5$) have no ads, are downloadable and some of them have a possibility to change the language of the audio and the language of subtitles. Brand new movies are available only after a purchase. The subscription provides a discount for those.

Available interfaces

Web browser, iOS, Android, Apple TV

 

Premier

 

Website language

Only Russian

Subtitles availability

No subtitles as far as I know

Content

Soviet, Russian and foreign movies, series, animation, TV-channels, TV-shows and documentaries.

Free content availability

The majority of free content is TV shows and series from popular entertaining TV channels. Mostly of comedies.

Shortcut link to the free content: https://premier.one/video/all/frее

Free collection of classic Soviet cartoons from SousMultFilm (Союзмультфильм) studio (the biggest and legendary Soviet animation studio) https://premier.one/video/cartoons/besplatno-sojuzmultfilm The studio has removed almost all their cartoons from Youtube in 2020. For the current moment (October, 2020) this page is the only place where the studio has officially placed their cartoons.

No ads (verification needed)

Paid content

One subscription for 129 RUB per month (around 1.7$) gives access to the entire collection of Premier.

Searching tools

Search by genres, countries, other categories, selections. Search bar. Rating system, reviews.

Available interfaces

Web browser, iOS, Android, Apple TV, Android TV

 

TVZavr

 

Not bad online cinema to have in your bookmarks for those who are not picky on movies or when you are out of free resources.

 

Website language

English and Russian

Subtitles availability

English and Russian subtitles in some movies.

Content

Large collection of Russian and foreign movies, series and cartoons. Though even the collection of Soviet movies contains only unpopular and rare movies.

Searching tools

Convenient search by genre, year, country, language of the audio, language of subtitles, selections. Search bar.

Free content availability

Part of the content is free with ads.

Paid content

To get rid of the ads you'd need to pay 99 RUB per month (around 1.3$). To get access for a wider catalogue with no ads for 249 RUB per month (3.3$).

Available interfaces

Web browser, iOS, Android, Smart TV, media players

 

NO SUBTITLES. No Free Content

 

Kinopoisk HD

 

Kinopoisk.ru is an old huge tried and trusted movie database (like IMDb) in Russian that created its own online cinema in partnership with Yandex (Russian Google that is actually more popular in Russia than Google).

 

Website language

Only Russian

Subtitles availability

Choice of audio tracks and subtitles where it's possible.

Content

Russian, Soviet and foreign movies, series and cartoons.

Free content availability

No free content.

Paid content

Subscriptions: "Plus" for 199 RUB a month (around 2.5$) and "Plus Multi with Amediateka" 649 RUB (around 8.5$) contains series of HBO and Showtime (for example "Game of Thrones" dubbed in Russian). There are also titles to rent or buy (discounts for subscribers).

Both subscriptions include unlimited listening to music on Yandex.Music + downloading (may be biggest online collection of music in Runet). 10 Gb on Yandex.Disk (same thing like Google.Disk).

Searching tools

Search by genres, countries, other categories, selections. Search bar. Rating system, reviews.

Available interfaces

Web browser, iOS, Android, Apple TV, Android TV, Playstation 4

Cool features like checking out the name of the character and the actor's name on the screen in the pause mode, or skipping the titles.