Max Vasmer’s Russisches etymologisches Wörterbuch is the etymological source to go for Russian language, as it seems. But I am having hard time finding English version of it in the West. Popular internet retailers carry only German or Russian versions, the library resources (via WorldCat) are very scarce for books clearly printed in English-speaking countries. Other alternatives such as Terence Wade’s Russian Etymological Dictionary (London, 1996) seem to be a pale shadow of Vasmer (in Wade’s case it’s 1500 words to Vasmer’s 18 000 or so).
Is there English translation of Vasmer’s dictionary (with or without Trubachjov’s addendum)? If not, what do English-speaking academics, philologists and linguists use when studying Russian etymology? Are they expected to know Russian fluently so that they can read the Russian version?