Average team and in a transitional moment between generations. Cherchesov seems to have run out of ideas over the last year (and he didn't have many to begin with) but the team has had a lot of injury problems to be fair to him. Few of the young players that have shown potential since 2018 have steadily improved, lots have already had serious injuries or become injury-prone. Chalov, who had the best breakthrough season, hadn't kicked on since and doesn't even make the squad.
It's a team that is steady and organised enough , so that it is yet to slip up against teams that are obviously weaker, but has not been able to step up and get any surprising wins. it also has now shown a consistent tendency of losing important games against teams on the same rough level, with failed late games in back to back nations league campaigns against Sweden, Turkey and Serbia where winning just one would have seen qualification to the A tier. There's also the recent World Cup qualifiers trio where after beating Malta and Slovenia, a win against a struggling and out of form Slovakia would have almost taken Slovakia out of contention already. Russia lost and didn't show much urgency imo, which keeps the group wide open.
Defence is the biggest problem. Mostly slow, mediocre players and the standout Mario Fernandes is starting to slow down/become more inconsistent due to wear and tear. He plays constantly for cska whenever anywhere near full fitness.
I'd expect a third place in the group. Denmark from what i have watched seem like a better, steadier version of Russia that have managed to become more than the sum of the parts where Russia haven't. Against Belgium i think cherchesov will play overly defensively, the tactical setup against Poland a few days ago seemed a rehearsal for this. He got burned trying to be more aggressive against them in the 4-1 qualifying loss, where despite plenty of possession Russia were cut through easily by counters and the defenders couldn't cope with the Hazard brothers pace. Finland are always very motivated against Russia, i'd much rather have got North Macedonia from the "minnows"