We are soon to leave the UK for Russia and although we had heard about translating documents it has taken us a while to find out where and how. If anyone is interested read below.

International Certificate of Motor Vehicle
(the text is blue is taken from the application form at May 2006)
International convention requires that the original registration document (V5) or certificate of registration (V379) accompanies a vehicle when it is taken overseas. However, although a British registration document is recognised in many countries, it must be accompanied by an International Certificate for Motor Vehicles (ICMV) when temporarily importing a vehicle into Egypt (from Israel -subject to certain conditions), Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia or Uruguay. Possession of an ICMV is recommended when travelling to Russian speaking areas of the former USSR, it is also advisable outside Europe when travelling in those countries where the French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Arabic or Persian translations of vehicle details may be more readily understood than English.
In addition, a letter of authority from the registered keeper will be required if the vehicle is not registered in the applicant's name.
Applications in the UK are now being managed through the AA (note that Carnet de Passage en Douane are issued by the RAC). You should contact their International Services Division on: +44 012 5649 3806

About Russia

An ICMV in practice is not required for Russia as in my experience, the customs are perfactly capable of understanding a V5C with a little help. However, Russian insurance companies are another matter because in the event you have to make a claim, they will do everything in their power to avoid paying and one of the excuses is that the V5C hasn't been translated into Russian. So, if the ICMV is a bit like an IDP which has a Russian page then it might be useful in Russia if you were unfortunate to have a crash. I did manage to get a Russian insurance company to accept the V5C in conjunction with the customs temporary import certificate which was in Russian anyway!
Rgds
Les