Don't even start on this, Farid! You're opening a Pandora's box. Semicolon is optional and simple, it is more than a comma and less than a period, informally speaking. Dashes, hyphens, commas, and colons are extremely complicated with strict rules and are taken seriously by native speakers in formal writing. You can learn some basic rules for commas, but do not try to achieve fluency and correctness here.

In Russian there are many punctuation rules. Unfortunately even we native speakers often miss them. But there are some strict. Comma First - in complex sentences before а, что, чтобы, потому что, но etc Second, when you call smb. The same in English - Hey, John! Привет, Вань! Third - there are many words and expressions that called - вводное слово, вводный оборот К счастью, у меня всё получилось! In most of the cases we can find difference in punctuation between English and Russian. Here are below some comparisons with English: In a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction, use a comma after each term except the last. красный, синий и белый In Russian, all relative clauses are set off by commas: Кандидат, который лучше всего соответствует требованиям, получит работу. In Russian, we can have independent sentences that are joined by a comma only: Романы Стивенсона увлекательны, они полны волнующих приключений Dash Direct speech. "А ты прав." — сказал он, — "Я великолепен!". Dash in Russian is also used when we drop “this is” Love this is wonderful feeling. Любовь - прекрасное чувство Before such words as это, вот, значит Love this is wonderful feeling Любовь - это прекрасное чувство

if you reproduce the direct speech of other person you need to use "-" " Пошли домой"- сказал Сергей. I guess others persons could add something to my answer

Хороший вопрос, Фарид

http://m.vk.com/expert_lingva?own=1#wall Here you can find a very useful book "Russian punctuation and related symbols"