>Easy to read ?? Once you have mastered a different alphabet maybe - especially since many characters have the same appearance but are pronounced completely differently :-{

Yes it is easy to read. The only trouble is that the Russians practically never put the umlaut on e, so you can't guess when it is pronounced ye (without umlaut) or you (with umlaut). Other than that, there's no confusion, you exactly know how to pronounce it. To differ from some other languages where the same group of characters may be read this way or that, depending on the disposition of their neighbors.