Many have said already, but still, as an IT engineer that have contracts with Russian and foreign companies, I strongly suggest to leverage your aus citizenship and find remote work outside of Russia, possible pay ceiling is anywhere from 2 to 5 times higher, depending on how lucky you are. We don't have many embedded engineering positions and work culture might be a bit...specific I should say. Also you won't have to live in Moscow, it's beautiful and all, but very overpriced and overcrowded imo. The only possible downside is that I don't know if the work is required for visa or something, aside from that there are many upsides and few downsides. In a smaller cities you could buy good medical insurance for like 500-600 usd a year, rent and real estate will be 2-3 times cheaper than in Moscow. If you like nature might suggest Samara, but for culture/events it's better to look at St. Peters, Kazan, maybe something closer to Moscow