Apostille vs. Embassy legalisation for Russia
Britain has one certification route out, and which of two systems it lands in depends entirely on where the paper is going. In the treaty system a single certificate is enough and nothing is added afterwards. In the consular system a foreign government inspects the file itself before it counts. An apostille for Russia sits in the first of those, which is why this page has one office in it rather than two.
Russia's Hague status & what it means
Russia joined the Hague Convention in 1992, and the United Kingdom belongs to the same treaty, so an apostille from the United Kingdom to Russia stands on its own. Nothing is added to it later and no second body ever handles the sheet. What the certificate never does, though, is comment on the document beneath it: not the wording, not the subject, and not the day it was issued.
How old is the sheet you are sending?
An apostille is a certificate about a signature. The office confirms that the signature and seal on the document belong to someone whose specimen it holds, then attaches its certificate to that sheet. The document's own issue date is untouched by any of this. A record printed years ago and certified today is still a record printed years ago, now carrying a recent certificate on top of it.
That is worth a minute before anything is posted, because the order of the two steps decides the bill. Plymouth Register Office at Derriford Park issues certified copies of birth, marriage and death records on request, each printed fresh from the register. Take that step first and a single certification covers the result. Take it afterwards and the new copy is a new document, with the charge beginning again.
Cost & timing for this route
The published British charge is £45 for each document by post at the Legalisation Office, or £40 for each on the next-day route open to registered businesses. Turnaround is not pinned to a figure here, and two postal legs sit either side of the office's own handling, so treat it as a window rather than a date. An apostille issued in Plymouth for use in Russia has no second stage waiting, which holds that window to one round trip.
Destination-specific requirements
Russia accepts the certificate as issued, with no embassy stage and no further charge on this side. That makes preparation, rather than procedure, the part deserving your attention: the right version of the record, recent enough for the purpose you have, as a certified copy rather than a photocopy, and a British address for the finished sheet to come home to.