Do I need a "Travel company" to visit Russia as a tourist?

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You do indeed need a letter of invitation (also called a Tourist Voucher) to get a Russian visa. Getting it isn't too hard but will cost you a small amount of money. Many hotels will act as the travel company if you have a booking with them. However they might charge an extra fee for this, and will often revoke your letter of invitation if you cancel your hotel booking with them. I believe being invited by an individual (ie a friend or relative in Russia) is also possible, but is reportedly a bureaucratic pain and will probably ultimately cost quite a bit of time. For this reason people often use a third party company, of which many are available, to produce them their letter of invitation — there are many companies who will charge you something like 10-30 USD to produce a letter of invitation for you, automatically and quickly, through email. I used one of these companies myself and had absolutely no trouble. You still have to provide details of the hotels you intend to use but deciding not to use these hotels will NOT invalidate your visa.

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When I travelled to Russia the last time five years ago, the Travel company I was supposed to enter was the name of the Russian company that supplied me with an invitation letter (in my case: RZD tours).

You should be able to find all the required details to complete the form in the invitation letter and/or supporting documentation.

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