Which then allows you to get a passport....

If you move to Canada and maintain residency for X number of years.

You just need to make it look like you actually are resident.

They ask for a list of trips you took outside of Canada and check that against your passport stamps. Canada has also started doing "exit checks".

Not saying they always dig into the data to see if you're lying, but they could...

Wasn't there that guy convicted in NS recently convicted of facilitated PRs staying outside Canada? As a Bayesian, that makes me think it is pretty widespread.

So it's not a home run, but it still sounds like a good deal to me - especially if I was an Oligarch keen to put distance between myself and the FSB