How important is it to learn Russian respectively in Europe & Asia ?

I am living with someone here in germany that can speak russian fluent and learnt it for eight years and she now says that she wishes she had learnt english instead as she has almost never used russian but constantly is asked to speak english as comes into everyday life. Though also depends on the type of people you are mixing with. I would also say that yes russian is harder than german as someone who is learning the german language.