I used to encounter this problem in the aspect I required EPSes in Russian.
After Cyrille's advice (he mentioned it as a last resort) I hardcoded KOI8-R
in charconv.c:
$ grep -r KOI8-R *
lib/charconv.c:#define EFAULT_8BIT_CHARSET "KOI8-R"
However, I had no problems with cyrillic on-screen fonts but only with EPS
export.
--
Best regards,
Sergei Astanin