I have no idea why the Russian authorities are asking her to justify what she's done since she's been out of the country. That sounds odd. My wife has renewed her Russian passport twice since we've been married. The first time she did it on a trip back to Russia, I think it took three weeks altogether (she might have been renewing her internal one at the same time, I can't really remember), and the second time she did it at the embassy in the UK. It took three months that time, but that was because her previous one had expired two years earlier. They never asked her about what she was doing in the UK.

Also, this bit is confusing:

What's amazing is she went to the russian embassy before travelling, got the visa to leave the country and everything, showed them the tickets..
Why did she need a visa or anything else from the Russian embassy if she was a dual national and her passport was valid?