Russian Consulate in Canada sub'd all of their visa vetting and processing to a third-party contractor some time ago. It is exclusive (meaning that the Consulate would not process regular visa applications themselves anymore). And yes, the agency does charge a processing fee for the service in addition to the normal consulate visa fee. I had to pay it a few years ago when I went to St.Petersburg for a conference. You get to them online through a direct link at the consulate page. So, it may appear that it's the consulate themselves processing a visa, bit it's not. It's a third-party.
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"An idea is always a generalization, and generalization is a property of thinking. To generalize means to think." Georg Hegel
“To generalize is to be an idiot.” William Blake
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