Ladies in the FSU without Internet can still communicate via sms messages on their cell phones. The tarriff for mts and kyivstar is between 6 and 7 cents per message. To do this they need to at the beginning of SMS message, enter an email address in a standard form: name@domain. If there is no symbol @ on the screen of your phone handset, use the following symbols instead: ? or &; Leave at least one space between address and message or subject line. Put message in and send to phone number: 555 with kiyvstar carrier or 1010 with mts. If you have a different carrier you will need to research.
The message will arrive with thierphonenumber@sms.mts.com.ua from an mts phone. I believe you can reply to it normally but have not tested that yet and that would be free for them. I believe the messages are limited to 150 characters with spaces English and 70 characters with spaces Cyrillic.
Credits can be added to their phones on line with the respective carrier's site but kiyvstar requires a credit card issued in the country of use and others may also. They accept visa but not a visa issued in the US.