Marrying a woman from Russia In UK

Hello there, new to the site. I have some questions in regards to marrying a Russian woman in the UK. I have full British citizenship and she has full Russian Federation citizenship. How would this process work? would I need to apply for a spouse visa? and what is the overall process like and what sort of steps should I take? and finally are the many costs involved in this process?

Have you met her in person?

If you want to marry in the UK, you apply for a 6 months fiance visa, which costs £1523 and you must marry within the 6 months. She needs to meet there English requirment with a test form a ukvi approved test centre and you need to meet the finaicla requirment if £18,600pa. A fiance visa won't permit her to work or use the free NHS service.

Once married and before her fiance visa expires, she applies for a spouse visa on from FLR M. Cost is £1033 visa fee plus £1560 immigration health surcharge. The visa will be granted for 2.5 years.

Before the spouse visa expires, she applies for another 2.5 year visa extension, paying the same visa and immigration health surcharge fees again.

Once she has almost 5 years kn the spouse visa, she can apply for indefinite leave to remain, which currently costs £2389 and share needs a higher level of English test and the Life in the UK test.

For each stage you must show evidence of meeting the financial requirements and subsisting relationship.

Visa fees increase every year in April.

For each step she also need to enroll her biomterics.

https://www.gov.uk/uk-family-visa

Thanks for the speedy response!
That's a lot of insight on how to move forward with our situation. We had no idea it would be so costly! I feel bad as we had promised each other to split any legal bills that her migration would cost but as there is quite a large difference in salaries it might be a struggle on her behalf. Do you also happen to know if i would have to travel to Russia for any of this process?
Many thanks!

Have you met her in person?

How long have you been in a relationship?

No requirement for you to travel to Russia.

We have been together for almost 2 years now, meeting up in the UK on multiple occasions and long-distance dating for the rest.

Check with your local council/registration office. Their website will have detailed information on the marriage registration process. I married a Russian citizen, but living in the UK. After we gave notice of marriage, there was some kind of UKVI check to ensure authenticity of the marriage.