I am a freelancer doing both oral and written translation of all types: simultaneous, consecutive, whisper-translation, written translation both ways - Russian to English and English to Russian. I do some editing as well though I am not overly keen on that (usually only as part of a package). My natural preference is oral translation though I do a lot of written as well. A native Russian speaker I have near-native English with British phonetics.

I graduated from Moscow Linguistic University in 1996 (with honours), taught there for 6 years (English Speech Practice and Home Reading classes) and all but completed a PhD programme.

My circumstances have been somewhat unique (for many years I existed in a bilingual environment where translating was almost as natural as speaking) enabling me to acquire a significant command of the English language even though I have never lived abroad (though I have travelled of course).

SPECIAL:

Everybody seems to agree that translating into your native language is the best way of doing translation. I disagree. At least it's not always the case.

Translation is not about getting across words, it's about getting across meaning. And to get the meaning across you need to UNDERSTAND IT first. What I can do for you (and what I have been doing for my clients these past 20 years) is help you understand Russian texts and the realities behind them. I have sufficient English to get that meaning across and I can explain (by providing footnotes, discussing terminology, even developing terminology you'll understand if need be) where direct translation proves insufficient.

Need examples?

I was translator/project co-ordinator for ILCU (Irish League of Credit Unions) development projects in Russia for over 10 years. One small thing my Irish colleagues found it hard to do was pronounce (and indeed remember) names of their Russian partner organisations. Credit Unions were ok (sort of) so long as I translated rather that transliterated their names (which is strictly speaking against the rules with names, but how on earth is an English speaker supposed to remember something like "Vzaimopomosch" or "Pripolyarje” or “Russkoje Torgovo-Promyshlennoje Obschestvo Vzaimnogo Kredita”?), but Russians have a very involved legislation regarding credit co-operative organisations so each Credit Union would have 2 parts to its name: type of organisation (rural credit co-ops, urban credit co-ops, industrial credit co-ops etc., etc.) plus ‘name’ per se. And while to a Russian CU person these names carried a lot of meaning, non-Russians (whatever their level of expertise in the field of consumer credit) were baffled. And I would have been baffled too if I hadn’t been a native Russian speaker.

So decide for yourself what it is you need, and if you need to be sure that the original Russian text is properly understood and if you want to understand it too this is where I can help. As to the quality of my English, well, judge by this little piece of writing :).