Gruenfeld Opening-Russian Variation

This Black defense to the Queen pawn opening is called the Russian variation of the Gruenfeld defense. More descriptive would be the provocative variation as White is provoking Black to capture a flank pawn with a center pawn, namely the Black d5 pawn captures the White c4 pawn.

From the diagram, one can see that White has attempted to induce this pawn capture by moving his Queen a little earlier than many chess theorists would recommend. Black is allowing White the pawn duo at d4/e4 in return for a potentially vulnerable White Queen.

In the main lines of the Gruenfeld, Black gets 2 to 1 queenside pawn majority and loves endings. In this variation, Black has 3 to 2 majority queenside. White has an extra pawn in the center which can lead to decent chances in the middle game.

I think this particular variation is more favorable to White than the main lines because the center attacking move c5 is harder to execute. The only line I am aware of where c5 is played is the Knight to the d7 square variations or the a6 followed by b5 line.