Put some big guns on her and she'd be The Bismark ...

[m1ashooter]

The Russians are fine, it's the damn Chinese that will be the problem.

I agree

[Art]

The Russians, because of their "Tea Party" style economic policies don't really go into debt. Running a government surplus had a lot to do with them surviving the Obama sanctions with only a short recession. If the Rooskie government doesn't have it they don't spend it. They also don't have a yard in which they can build large warships. What used to be the shipyard they used for heavy ships is now in the southeastern Ukraine. Because of that they're stuck with refurbishing old tonnage when it comes to ships bigger than a destroyer. All 5 of their cruisers entered service in the 1970s or mid '80s. They had to strap drydocks together to do the much overdue refurb on the aircraft carrier Kuznetzov and that obviously hasn't gone without a hitch.

The three ex Kirov class battlecruisers, named only because of their size, are hybrid surface combat and anti submarine ships. They have massive batteries of surface to surface, surface to air and antisubmarine missiles. They were originally made with us in mind but since they know they aren't ever fighting a war with us they are actually quite useful projectors of Russian coercion.

As to all of you who say the Chinese are a greater threat, I wholeheartedly agree.

- - - Updated - - -

Another point you might make is that Russia is strategically disadvantaged as a naval power -- almost all their ports freeze over. And their warm water ports are mostly in the Black Sea.

Which is why their naval base in Turkey is so important to them.