It did strike me that the article was a tad...shall we say OTT when it comes to its viewpoint on Russian vessels. The Kuznetsov is not a young man, but I doubt he is ready to 'sink' as it claims that he is.
In regards to the effects on the upgrade program that the current troubles the Russian economy is having will have, I agree with ikalugin, I can't see much of the groundwork being too badly affected, in some instances the employment producing new warships could, in fact, be a bonus and provide much needed work. However, it's a case of infrastructure restructuring from the Pact days where some critical industries were outside of Russia itself, such as in the Ukraine or in the space agencies case, in Kazakhstan. But Russia has got a lot of land, so getting the industries on hand shouldn't be a problem, it's just a matter of time really.
It's a bit like the PRC, despite the 'red scare' that occasionally pops up in the US, the Peoples Liberation Army Navy is in no fit shape to take on the USN, even if their DF-21Ds are as accurate as they claim (which I have my doubts). They need to build up a trifectre of anti-ship weaponry (SSGNs, air launched ASMs and the ASICBMs) so that they can overwhelm the US anti-missile defences, AND have the carriers in order to back up any action they have planned outside of Chinas current borders (aka Taiwan), so we're probably looking at the USN being fairly undisputed naval masters until into the early 2020s.
That's when things will get interesting...hopefully by then Britain might even have a navy too!
