1. Depends on your visa office. Some places take 7-10 business days, others I’ve seen can take a month.
2. Vfs does email and sms you on updates for your passport stamping process.
I’m saying not true that Russia is delaying background checks. Canada doesn’t have an information sharing agreement with them. It’s 50% on Canada and 50% on the applicant for not submitting quality information
Not true. My Russian wife was approved in 3 months from Warsaw this year. It is always about the quality of the supporting documents you submitted. We had at least a few red flags in our application but the process was smooth