diff --git a/xwords4/dawg/Russian/Makefile b/xwords4/dawg/Russian/Makefile
index d982c89c8..585a59707 100644
--- a/xwords4/dawg/Russian/Makefile
+++ b/xwords4/dawg/Russian/Makefile
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# -*- mode: makefile -*-
+# -*- coding: utf-8; -*-
 # Copyright 2002-2007 by Eric House (xwords@eehouse.org).  All rights reserved.
 #
 # This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
@@ -15,21 +15,23 @@
 # along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
 # Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA.
 
-XWLANG=Russian
-LANGCODE=ru_RU
+XWLANG = Russian
+LANGCODE = ru_RU
+ENC = UTF-8
 DICT2DAWGARGS = -r
 
 TARGET_TYPE ?= WINCE
 
 include ../Makefile.langcommon
 
-SOURCEDICT ?= $(XWDICTPATH)/$(XWLANG)/RU5000.txt.gz
+SOURCEDICT ?= $(XWDICTPATH)/Russian/RU5000.txt.gz
 
 $(XWLANG)Main.dict.gz: $(SOURCEDICT) Makefile
 	zcat $< | tr -d '\r' | \
-	tr [��������������������������������] [��������������������������������] | \
-	gzip -c > $@
-
+		iconv -f ISO_8859-2 -t utf8 | \
+		sed 's,.,\U\0,g' | \
+		grep '^[ŔÁÂĂÄĹĆÇČÉĘËĚÍÎĎĐŃŇÓÔŐÖ×ŘŮÚŰÜÝŢß]*$$' | \
+		gzip -c > $@
 
 # Everything but creating of the Main.dict file is inherited from the
 # "parent" Makefile.langcommon in the parent directory.
diff --git a/xwords4/dawg/Russian/info.txt b/xwords4/dawg/Russian/info.txt
index 912f508f4..b00af9d43 100644
--- a/xwords4/dawg/Russian/info.txt
+++ b/xwords4/dawg/Russian/info.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+# -*- mode: conf; coding: utf-8; -*-
 # Copyright 2002,2007 by Eric House (xwords@eehouse.org).  All rights
 # reserved.
 #
@@ -21,56 +22,54 @@ CHARSET:windows-1251
 # deal with DOS files
 LANGFILTER: tr -d '\r'
 # uppercase all
-LANGFILTER: | tr [��������������������������������] [��������������������������������]
+LANGFILTER: | tr [ŕáâăäĺćçčéęëěíîďđńňóôőö÷řůÚűüýţ˙] [ŔÁÂĂÄĹĆÇČÉĘËĚÍÎĎĐŃŇÓÔŐÖ×ŘŮÚŰÜÝŢß]
 # LANGFILTER: | tr -s '\n' '\000'
 
 # note: don't turn off sorting!  Can't do it with GNU 'sort' without
 # setting LANG
 D2DARGS: -r -term 10
 
-LANGINFO: <p>Russian wordlists must be in the Windows-1251
-LANGINFO: codepage. Lower-case letters are converted to upper case and
-LANGINFO: any words that contain letters not listed below are
-LANGINFO: removed.</p>
+LANGINFO: <p>Russian wordlists must be in utf-8: codepage. Lower-case
+LANGINFO: letters are converted to upper case and any words that
+LANGINFO: contain letters not listed below are removed.</p>
 
 # High bit means "official".  Next 7 bits are an enum where
 # Russian==0x0F.  Low byte is padding.
 XLOC_HEADER:0x8F00
 
-
 <BEGIN_TILES>
-8       1         '�'
-2       3         '�'
-4       1         '�'
-2       3         '�'
-2       2         '�'
-7       1         '�'
-1       4         '�'
-1       3         '�'
-7       1         '�'
-1       2         '�'
-4       2         '�'
-4       2         '�'
-2       3         '�'
-4       1         '�'
-9       1         '�'
-4       2         '�'
-5       1         '�'
-5       1         '�'
-7       1         '�'
-4       2         '�'
-1       5         '�'
-1       4         '�'
-1       4         '�'
-1       3         '�'
-1       4         '�'
-1       5         '�'
-1       10        '�'
-2       2         '�'
-4       1         '�'
-1       8         '�'
-1       5         '�'
-2       2         '�'
-2			0		{"_"}
+8       1         'Ŕ'
+2       3         'Á'
+4       1         'Â'
+2       3         'Ă'
+2       2         'Ä'
+7       1         'Ĺ'
+1       4         'Ć'
+1       3         'Ç'
+7       1         'Č'
+1       2         'É'
+4       2         'Ę'
+4       2         'Ë'
+2       3         'Ě'
+4       1         'Í'
+9       1         'Î'
+4       2         'Ď'
+5       1         'Đ'
+5       1         'Ń'
+7       1         'Ň'
+4       2         'Ó'
+1       5         'Ô'
+1       4         'Ő'
+1       4         'Ö'
+1       3         '×'
+1       4         'Ř'
+1       5         'Ů'
+1       10        'Ú'
+2       2         'Ű'
+4       1         'Ü'
+1       8         'Ý'
+1       5         'Ţ'
+2       2         'ß'
+2	    0		{"_"}
 <END_TILES>
 # should ignore all after the <END_TILES> above