It has been quite a year for Russian ballet in New York. First, in the summer, there was a visit by the Bolshoi Ballet, robust but plagued by scandal and a reactionary repertory. Then, last month, came the United States debut of the newly ascendant Mikhailovsky Ballet, with strong performances and more unadventurous programming. In January, the Mariinsky Ballet will complete the hat trick at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

The Moscow Ballet, despite its official-sounding name, is not on the same level. It is a pickup company of Russian dancers assembled for tours of America. Its “Great Russian Nutcracker,” which played at the Hammerstein Ballroom on Sunday, has a misleading name. It is Russian, and it is a “Nutcracker” (one that nabbed the nutcracker.com domain name), but it is by no means great.

That doesn’t mean it’s bad. The choreography, created by Stanislav Vlasov in 1993, is undistinguished by imagination or musicality. Often, it seems to be politely accompanying Tchaikovsky’s great score (taped) rather than riding it; the music arrives at a climax, and the dancing lags; or the score shifts moods, and the dancing, missing the turn, fills time.

The storytelling has little narrative momentum or suspense, and the style is neither psychologically acute nor mythically potent. There’s no hint of mystery or menace in the magic tricks of Uncle Drosselmeyer, a dancing role in this version. He’s an inoffensive though sometimes cloying children’s party host presiding over a pleasant touristy production.