Moscow is ridiculously expensive for centrally-situated decent hotels - so it is with some relief that the Aquamarine is available. This is a really good hotel - the rooms are very comfortable, clean and spacious. It is certainly of 4 star quality. I stayed here as I was attending a conference at the Baltschug Kempinski - about 2 mins walk away, but the rooms at the Baltschug are 3 times more expensive and no better than at the Aquamarine. Views from the hotel rooms are just over neighbouring unexciting buildings. Its in a quiet location, and about a 10 minute taxi ride to Red Square or a 25 min walk. There are always taxi drivers in the lobby, but its worth checking with the desk for correct price for a fare.

Finally a hotel which is close enough to city center, acceptable and European

Hotel is new as 2011.
Rooms are nicely furnisced and modern cozyness is the feeling.
Personnel pretty cold.
Restaurant expensive for quality provided. Anyway just outside there is a nice italian restaurant called "Giovedì café".
Is located near the river but the view is on an internal square or towards the periphery.
If you're a good walker you can reach Kremlin by foot (not advisable in winter since temperatures).

The hotel is very modern and very comfortable. The property is brand new, hotel rooms are quite big, well appointed, nicely designed, with all the amenities you could wish for in a 4 star property (including slippers, bathrobes, free water, tea and coffee making kit, good quality bathroom amenities including even a shaving kit, teethbrushing kit etc. which is quite rare in hotels). The hotels and rooms are also very clean. The staff - very polite and nice.
I also used the hotel's sauna and steam room, which were also very nice and clean.
I did not try the hotel breakfast as it seemed well overpriced (1000 RUB - appr. 25 EUR, which in my case equaled 30% of the room price - but i have to admit I did get a very good deal on otel.com). I managed to have some nice breakfast for half the price in restaurants close to Novokuznetskaya metro station. One of them was the Grably restaurant - self service bar with ok food, not extremely tasty, but home made looking. The pancakes filled with white cheese (tvarog) were very good, ca. 45 Rub a piece. 150 RUB was too much though.
The prices of the mini bar menu seemed too high for a hotel of this class and location - 200 RUB (5 EUR) for a bottle of beer, which is closer to western european prices than Russian. Maybe im too used to mini bar prices in Polish hotels, which usually offer a beer for 2 EUR, wine for 2,5 EUR; i have seen some properties in Rome however, were the minibar prices were also reasonable. Obviously the lower the prices are the better the items sell and the more satisfied the guestes are, the higher the prices, the less items have to be sold to get the same income butthe less satisfied the guests are (believing they are being ripped off). The choice belongs to the hotel management. The fact I totally could not accept was the charge for renting the mini bar - i.e. if you would like to put some of your personal items into the minibar (which was locked) you you have to pay 8 EUR for that per night. This is the first hotel in my life where I have seen such a practice.

The location of the hotel is not perfect. It is a 12 minute walk from Novokuznetskaya metro station, from where you can get in 2 minutes to the Red Saure, and about 10 minutes to the Belorusskaya railway station, from where you can catch a aeroexpress train to Sheremetyevo airport (35 minutes). Thanks to this - within an hour of leaving the hotel you are at the SVO airport.