So I see that almost everyone is into attacking the ukraine on R1, I found it lacking.
I usually go with, 3Artillery/2tanks, 2i/2a/2t or 6 artillery on the purchase for attack options(If you’re buying 8 inf on turn one you’re doing it wrong)
Send 5 inf from Kar/Arch, 1 Artillery and two fighters to West russia and stack everything else in Cauc. Leave one Inf in Lenningrad and do your standard moves on the east end.
Cauc is all but untakable(98% vs max attack) and it forces Germany to move everything and its fighters to Ukraine away from the fleets if Germany hopes to hold Ukraine. UK then lands it’s two southern planes in Cauc. and sets up to reinforce Caucases with a few Indians
If germany does stack in Ukraine you just keep stacking in Cauc, the extra artillery can be used to take back West Russia every turn with minimal forces, Germany must not be allowed to stack fighters there. If Germany tries to send everything to WR, the artillery purchased will help smash anything that remains there. Without their fighters to defend they can’t hold it.
So it all comes down to US/UK not screwing up and losing all their transports, by round three their should be enough pressure on Germany for Russia to start defending its backside from the Japanese.
So Russia just stands strong until Germany is forced to retreat, never advancing your troops to far into germany so they can be used vs the Japanese when they finally arrive.
The most important thing for germany/russia is not to waste your fighters on suicide attacks and avoid using infantry to attack if they are without artillery support.