Under the context of globalization and marketization, the internationalization of higher education has become a common pursuit of nations and higher education institutions. Nonetheless, current studies on the internationalization of higher education are still largely dominated by the westernized paradigm. There is relatively limited research on the internationalization of Russian higher education, especially on the strategies and challenges of internationalization at the institutional level. By conducting a case study of a Russian elite research university, this paper explores the strategies and challenges of internationalization of higher education in Russia. It finds there are some doubts behind the practice from the faculty’s perspective, which would be the improvement direction for future internationalization of Russian universities.