There are several clubs where you can rent a Russia or a PW5. Try one
and see which one is more fun to fly.

Also, there many clubs where you can watch/assist a private owner
assemble a privately owned Russia or PW5. This might be a good thing
to do, get some hands on experience and owner feedback. Other issues,
like how good is the trailer, also come into play when deciding which
plane to buy. You also get feedback on "improvements" made to each
plane. For example, Russian tailwheels are horrible, but you can
replace them with either an aluminum or nylon Tost tailwheel ($130) or
figure out how to add air each flight to a non-standard air valve (2
easy, cheap ways actually). Or how do you add a boom mike to a PW5?
Where do you store the water bottle in each one? Little things like
this are not in the sales brochure!

I am not sure the Apis, Silent, or Sparrowhawk are readily available
at the club level yet. The dealers seem helpful, though.