When I am typing in cyrillic, I can not access any of the vim key bindings, unless I switch the keyboard layout to a latin-based one.
There existed a solution for 1-byte locales, the famous langmap command. Putting the following in the ~/.vimrc solved the problem for those who worked in e.g. a koi8-r or cp1251-based locale.
set langmap=ж;;
set langmap=ё`,йq,цw,уe,кr,еt,нy,гu,шi,щo,зp,х[,ъ],фa,ыs,\
вd,аf,пg,рh,оj,лk,дl,э',яz,чx,сc,мv,иb,тn,ьm,б\,,ю.,Ё~,\
ЙQ,ЦW,УE,КR,ЕT,HY,ГU,ШI,ЩO,ЗP,Х{,Ъ},ФA,ЫS,ВD,АF,ПG,РH,\
ОJ,ЛK,ДL,Ж:,Э\",ЯZ,ЧX,СC,МV,ИB,ТN,ЬM,Б
Unfortunately, this did not work in a multibyte locale. Instead, one has to map every key independently with the map command:
map ё `
map й q
map ц w
map у e
map к r
map е t
map н y
map г u
map ш i
map щ o
map з p
map х [
map ъ ]
map ф a
map ы s
map в d
map а f
map п g
map р h
map о j
map л k
map д l
map ж ;
map э '
map я z
map ч x
map с c
map м v
map и b
map т n
map ь m
map б ,
map ю .
map Ё ~
map Й Q
map Ц W
map У E
map К R
map Е T
map Н Y
map Г U
map Ш I
map Щ O
map З P
map Х {
map Ъ }
map Ф A
map Ы S
map В D
map А F
map П G
map Р H
map О J
map Л K
map Д L
map Ж :
map Э "
map Я Z
map Ч X
map С C
map М V
map И B
map Т N
map Ь M
map Б
see also at http://www.vim.org/tips/tip.php?tip_id=1348