Policy branch rules configured to require approval only on release/production are requiring approval on release/staging

Summary

Reported in US gov ticket 12008, the policy rules are not being properly honored. When targeting release/production, approvals are incorrectly required on policies targeting the release/staging branch.

Steps to reproduce

1. Use the following policy.yml config:

approval_policy:
  - name: production_approval
    description: Get approval for release to production
    enabled: true
    actions:
      - type: require_approval
        approvals_required: 1
        group_approvers_ids:
          - 1234657
      - type: send_bot_message
        enabled: true
    rules:
      - type: any_merge_request
        commits: any
        branches:
          - release/production
    approval_settings:
      block_branch_modification: true
      prevent_pushing_and_force_pushing: true
      prevent_approval_by_author: true
      prevent_approval_by_commit_author: true
      remove_approvals_with_new_commit: true
      require_password_to_approve: false
    fallback_behavior:
      fail: closed

2. Observe that MR to the release/staging branch is blocked by my production_approval rule in spite of the rule targeting release/production only.

Example Project

• Reproduced here

What is the current bug behavior?

What is the expected correct behavior?

Relevant logs and/or screenshots

Output of checks

Results of GitLab environment info

Expand for output related to GitLab environment info

 (For installations with omnibus-gitlab package run and paste the output of: \`sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:env:info\`)  (For installations from source run and paste the output of: \`sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gitlab:env:info RAILS_ENV=production\`)  

Results of GitLab application Check

Expand for output related to the GitLab application check

(For installations with omnibus-gitlab package run and paste the output of: `sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:check SANITIZE=true`)

(For installations from source run and paste the output of: `sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gitlab:check RAILS_ENV=production SANITIZE=true`)

(we will only investigate if the tests are passing)

Possible fixes