Hi,
I have discovered that KDE has some problems with the Russian keyboard group/characters set (I tested it on KUbuntu and OpenSuse 10.2 (both x86) and same results/troubles):

1. If one changes the current keyboard group from English to Russian the available shortcuts in any application stop working. It affects those shortcuts that have a 'letter' such as Ctrl+F, Ctrl+S, but does not affect shortcuts that don't contain letters such as Alt+F2. (For example, in Firefox 2.0: While using English group press Ctrl+F and you can start searching, change group to Russian and press Ctrl+F - doesn't work anymore).

2. Keyboard layout switching. Same thing. One has to assing such a shortcut that it does NOT contain letters because otherwise there comes up a trouble: switching stops working when the keyboard group changes to 'ru' (Russian). Example: say I have three keyboard groups enabled: English, Russian and Polish. I chose to switch groups with Ctrl+Shift+L, since there's uses a letter in the shortcut ('L') - the switching stops working once it gets to the russian keyboard group. Workaround - don't use letters in shortcuts. I personally chose to switch keyboard groups using Ctrl+Shift+PAGE_DOWN.

I haven't found a workaround for the 1st issue. I hope the KDE group is aware of it.

I had this problem before and somewhere found the solution... =) (for both issues! and it works for russian and any other non-latin-letters language...)

1.Open Control center
2.Go to "Regional & Accessibility"
3.Go to "Keyboard Layout"
4.Select your non-latin-letters language (in your case, russian)
5.Check the "include latin layout" button (it's in the bottom of the window)
6.Restart KDE (needed??)
7.Be happy!

This sounds reasonable, but doesn´t work for me. I have set up two layouts: English and Russian. The Include Latin Layout check box is selected for the Russian layout, but still I can´t access the find dialog in Firefox 2.0 with Ctrl+F when the layout is switched to Russian. Any other suggestions?

Meanwhile, I´ve found this add-on - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3529
which can workaround the problem. However, it is not a real solution.

There is the answer... :"The problem with hot keys is well known to all Russian Mozilla users" don't search the problem in KDE or somewhere else, it is in FireFox and they know it... use that hack and relax! =)

If you press [alt]-f while in the russian layout you are pressing [alt]-в instead. Can you add an [alt]-в shortcut?

This is a good suggestion too, but only for the firefox-related problem. For the rest, the "include latin layout" button I described before must work.

Note:in fact the f, while in the russian layout is a а and not a в...
so he could try to add [Ctl]-а as shortcut.

You are right. Most of the keys on my laptop's keyboard have worn down. I have 4 readable letters, Q Z X & P.

interesting that the "p" is still visible :P
maybe because of it position on the board...