I can tell you the steps I used to learn German -- it took about 6-8 months until my only remaining hurtles were sheer vocabulary. Granted, I have a background in Ancient languages, so learning an inflected language like German (or Russian) is much easier for me than it would have been, already understanding gender and case and such. BUT, the methods I used to learn Classical languages did
not work for German. I was not a believer in the "practical methods", but they really do work if you do them right, in my opinion.
1. Started with Duolingo. I did not find it useful whatsoever.
2. Started reading Harry Potter in German. At first it took me like an hour to get through a page, I would just look at the English if a sentence was too complicated to figure out with the dictionary. I started to notice patterns, and would read grammar blogs and help sites for stuff that was reoccurring, (e.g. looking for "relative pronouns" on mydailygerman and german language stack exchange). After making it through about 20 pages in HP, the improvement was dramatic. Reading is most important for thinking in a foreign word order. Now people tell me that I use some very sophisticated words and constructions, and it's definitely because I learned German from reading. I've read three books in german now, and can read HP-level stuff without a dictionary.
Btw, I got a kindle for this purpose, but I think that part of the slowness of having to type the word out yourself in an online dictionary helps with memorization. Also, translations are never 1:1, so often the kindle dictionaries are not very helpful. I would go to the park and use my phone to look up words.
Also -- translated books are way easier to read than books originally written in a foreign language. Natively written stuff has too many idioms or strange constructions for a beginner. So reading translations of books you already know is much, much easier (you can also follow the story and not miss an important detail because you don't understand a sentence and have to skip it).
3. Did Memrise for vocab, 1000 Elementary German words. This is huge for speaking confidence (and therefore, speed) -- that you know the gender of the word you are using. They also have sets that teach you which cases and prepositions verbs take, etc. (e.g. In german, you say "I am proud ON you <you in the accusative>". These are hard to learn from just reading) The important thing is to say it out loud, just like the example. Eventually, you'll just use the right gender without even thinking about it! (Something I thought was impossible)
4. Watched all the Harry Potter moves dubbed in German, with German subtitles. Twice. First time, I paused when I didn't know a word, and used google translate to translate the sentence. So it would take me like 5+ hours per movie. But, this was one of the most dramatic things that helped my listening comprehension. In the two week period where I did nothing but vocab and watched these movies, I would say my german understanding at least doubled. I also re-watched the movies without subtitles (understanding much less), because it forces comprehension speed and really listening. But the subs are important at first so you know how to spell things ;)
Now I watch movies in German, and always have German subtitles on if the channel has them. If there is Russian Netflix, you can use a VPN and watch your favorite movies subbed/dubbed. You just really have to get high-quality productions, or the subs are too different to be helpful. The news is good non-subbed because they enunciate very clearly. Nature documentaries are also great, because they speak slowly and clearly. Never be afraid to pause/repeat/look up a word!
5. Writing. If you can get someone to write to, it's great, because you have time to carefully express stuff you would want to say every day. So you effectively learn to write phrases that you will later want to say in conversation, but you have the time to research some more about how to do it correctly (and get in good habits).
6. Obviously, speaking. Though I have relatively little speaking experience (my job is in English), I am very capable of expressing myself. If you don't have a native speaker to talk to every day, it also works to talk to yourself and try thinking in the language! Better if you live alone, so only you know that you're crazy :)
So, in a summary: Watch movies and read books. If you see a pattern, research it. Look it up again and again until you memorize it (by seeing it in context). Tools like memrise are great for stuff that is hard to get from movies/reading, like genders. And of course, you need to find someone to talk to! Above all, realize that you will never know what is going on with 100% confidence :D
To give you some realistic expectations: I've lived in Germany since Jul. 2013. It took me 6 months to be conversational, and 8 months to read HP/only really need to improve vocabulary/expressions/comprehension speed. Interacting with German every day cannot be understated as a motivating factor -- you should visit Russia :)