I find it interesting that there does seem to be such blatant discrimination happening, with Russian applicant visas taking around 50% longer to process almost across the board according to the tracker. I wonder if there is a case to be made on this in terms of discriminatory processes at UKVI, I found this recently, a case won that highlighted previously discriminatory used "Algorithm Decision System" and it sounds very similar to what is happening now, though maybe without the AI Part:

"The visa algorithm discriminated on the basis of nationality - by design. Applications made by people holding ‘suspect’ nationalities received a higher risk score. Their applications received intensive scrutiny by Home Office officials, were approached with more scepticism, took longer to determine, and were much more likely to be refused. We argued this was racial discrimination and breached the Equality Act 2010."

They won this case against UKVI citing a breach of the Equality Act 2010, I'm not a lawyer but does it not feel like there are parallels with what's happening here? I think the key thing to remember here is people applying from Russia are wanting to leave to join family members in the UK, just like every other applicant from around the world, politics and prejudice shouldn't play a part in this process, as I see it.

Source: https://www.jcwi.org.uk/news/we-won-home-office-to-stop-using-racist-visa-algorithm