I'm now taking a Russian course(for fun) and my teacher explained that Russians do not print. I'm now at a disadvantage at reading written Russian(cursive), not only because I cannot read cursive, but also because I'm not as familiar with Russian as English.
Admittedly, there is a good reason for cyrillic cursive's existance: shapes of printed letters are just not suited for writing them by hand. Whereas in latin most letters can be printed with just one or two pen strokes (even disallowing retracing), cyrillic letters take two or three at minimum. Probably related to the fact that cyrillic mostly developed after printing was invented, and changed by acts of kings and church, while latin had a much longer and gentlier history.
If I had to work with and encounter Russian handwriting on a more regular basis I'm sure I'd be better at it, but as is, with me only needing to try to decipher things once a month, I find myself struggling. If I were just learning the language I would hate to be subjected to that.