Only? ~33% is a high number that is also not reasonably close to being correct (as your supposedly is correctly suspicious of). I saw that figure on the Russia Beyond site, it's heavily misleading. Russia is rather notorious for having a very low percentage of English speakers.
By contrast, 33% is nearly as high as in France and Italy and is far higher than in Spain. Obviously it's false.
Only 3% of Russians are fluent in English. Only 5% spoke English as of the 2010 census. Even that is probably a stretch, as it's just a result of listing languages people claimed to know (which says nothing of the true capability). If we were generous to the last decade of English adoption, it's likely still well under 10% that speak it at all. You can also see this in action in Eastern Ukraine and Belarus, where English adoption is extremely low compared to most of Europe.
I can confirm, Russia has extremely low English competency. 3% sounds about right from my experience (I live here). Which is a good thing of course, as it forces me to learn Russian.
I was pretty surprised recently when I visited St Petersburg. I went on a tour and the tour guide spoke flawless English for the whole three hour tour. Until someone asked her a question in English. And another. And another. And with each one it became more apparent that she did not speak English, she just memorized the tour in English.
One of the more interesting things I took from the trip.
She probably knows some english, just not conversational. I can read spanish and I could certainly memorize a spanish language speech and even pronounce it fairly well, but I struggle to have anything beyond and extremely basic conversation in Spanish.
Hearing and understanding is easier than forming responses in real time. I understand a lot more Russian than I can speak. She probably understood a lot of English, but struggled coming up with responses.
Something I was intrigued by is that the VOA has a .ru domain. (This is the Voice of America, which broadcast US propaganda and world news to the Soviet Union during the Cold War)
By contrast, 33% is nearly as high as in France and Italy and is far higher than in Spain. Obviously it's false.
Only 3% of Russians are fluent in English. Only 5% spoke English as of the 2010 census. Even that is probably a stretch, as it's just a result of listing languages people claimed to know (which says nothing of the true capability). If we were generous to the last decade of English adoption, it's likely still well under 10% that speak it at all. You can also see this in action in Eastern Ukraine and Belarus, where English adoption is extremely low compared to most of Europe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-s...