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в and ф are considered a voiced-voiceless pair, but in English there is surely a difference between the 'v' and 'f' sound that is not limited to voicedness, for example, the mouth positioning is different.
Is it true that the pronunciation of ф should not be equated to that of 'f', but should instead be thought of as equal to that of a voiceless-'v' ?
What's the proper way to pronounce в and ф?
I'll start a bit from afar.
Each segment ("sound", allophone) covers a lot of possible actual articulations. And, while it does seem like for [v] the spectrum is somewhat wider than for [f], their articulations are most similar and voiced/voiceless is the only difference which is stable across different allowed articulations. (As an aside, I would be interested in how you believe mouth to be positioned differently for [v] and [f]. If @Sergey Slepov's characteristization of lower lip covering upper teeth - presumably instead of merely touching them as in every labiodental - is right, this is certainly the first time I see it.)
Now, why is it relevant? Because literally the same holds for Russian: [в] and [в'] similarly do have more possible articulations than [ф] and [ф'] but the only stable difference is voice.
Yes, [ф] is just a voiceless [в] which is practically the same as the English [v]. In [ф] there is no additional articulation found in [f] (lower lip covering upper teeth). Minimal pair:
Another voiced-voiceless pair that English speakers should be particularly careful with is [б] and [п]. Be sure not to add any aspiration to [п]:
No aspiration in [д] or [т] either.
