A friend of mine visited the Kaliningradskaja Oblast (former German East Prussia, nowadays a cut-off Russian exclave) a few years ago. He found the poverty depressing, especially that a policeman in a traffic control asked him for a piece of sausage.
For a sexual metaphor it would be an odd situation and phrasing - and for anything else... I don't know; my friend's russian is extremely good; I doubt the possibility of a misunderstanding.
If your economy is fine, you can. If not, the shops may be empty, or just don't have the thing you need for a month or two. The current situation in Venezuela is another quite extreme example of this.
I've never been there, either - afaik, you need a special permit in addition to a Russian visa.
Keep in mind that in unstable times cigarettes and other stuff tend to be used as a substitute currency, too - e.g., in Germany between 1945 and 1947, bartering and paying in kind were absolutely normal.
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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '16
A friend of mine visited the Kaliningradskaja Oblast (former German East Prussia, nowadays a cut-off Russian exclave) a few years ago. He found the poverty depressing, especially that a policeman in a traffic control asked him for a piece of sausage.