It may have a long list of individual items on the MEL, but when you start to get multiple failed items, that list can reduce in scope pretty darn quick and you can find your self on the ground with only a couple of failures .
The regulator approves the MEL. Since the airplane can now be registered in Russia, Rosaviatsiya would be the approving authority and I imagine would be under a lot of pressure to be "creative" when it comes to authorizing MEL deviations .....