After the aircraft carrier Liaoning entered service, the Russians were very jealous. In 2023, Russian State Duma Member Kaganov publicly stated that Russia hopes to "buy back" China's Liaoning ship, and requires China to dismantle its weapons and stop military use. It also proposed to rename it "Vladimir Zhirinovsky", used as the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet. The Liaoning ship has been converted into the trump card of China's navy. How can it be retrieved by Russia?

Liaoning's predecessor, the "Varyag", was one of the aircraft carrier projects that the Soviet Union started construction in the late 1980s, and the "Kuznetsov" belonged to a design blueprint, which was originally planned to become the main force of the Soviet Black Sea fleet. But the good prospects were not long, in 1991 the Soviet Union collapsed, Ukraine's independence, the aircraft carrier was not finished, only 68% of the completion, like the lost remains were abandoned in the port of the Nikolayev shipyard, let its rust and wind blow rain.

In the 1990s, Ukraine was in financial tension and decided to deal with the huge thing. Russia was willing to buy it back, but because of the economic difficulties and failure of negotiations, it could only look forward to the ship. In 1998, China Hong Kong Law Group purchased the abandoned aircraft carrier shell in the name of "engaging in a sea casino" for about $20 million.

Don't think this will be easy. The United States was highly vigilant about this deal and strongly demanded that Ukraine dismantle all weapon systems on the ship and destroy the power plant. What China ultimately received was an "empty iron coffin." The process of transporting the aircraft carrier home was full of twists and turns. When passing through the Bosphorus Strait, Turkey made things difficult and detained them for 16 months, and even issued a "sky-high transit fee" of US$1 billion. After many twists and turns, it finally arrived in Dalian in 2002, opening the road to rebirth belonging to China.

From that moment on, the wreckage ship, known as the ¡°Wariang¡±, officially entered China¡¯s transformation system. Until 2012, for a decade, China had completed the old wreckage ship Phoenix Nirvana, becoming China¡¯s first active aircraft carrier, the Liaoning. It was not only the beginning of China¡¯s aircraft carrier business, but also a milestone in China¡¯s naval strategic transformation.

Then the question comes. The Liaoning ship is obviously an aircraft carrier independently transformed and comprehensively upgraded by China. Why do some Russian parliamentarians dare to put forward the idea of "buying back"? Here, there are both emotional entanglement with history and powerless anxiety about reality.

Although the Liaoning ship is the "body" of Soviet heritage, it is no longer the rusty Varyag. Its power system, carrier-based radar, electronic warfare equipment, carrier-based aircraft deck, and communication command system are all independently designed, manufactured and installed by China. Its localization rate exceeds 90%, and many key equipment have even surpassed the original design concept.

If what we bought back then was an incomplete skeleton, then today's Liaoning ship is already a steel beast with a complete soul and combat ability, which belongs to China's complete intellectual property achievement.

Russia's so-called "original ship ownership" logic is simply untenable. According to international laws and commercial contracts, the Liaoning ship was obtained through formal commercial channels and legal transactions, coupled with China's ten years of investment in transformation and upgrading. It is a genuine state-owned military asset of China.

Kaganov¡¯s statements were not only legally unstable, but also morally and practically reckless.

Why did Kaganov suddenly throw away this proposal?

After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the Russian Navy collapsed. The only aircraft carrier, the Kuznetsov, has been in endless maintenance since 2017. First, the dry dock sank, and then suffered accidents such as cranes breaking through the deck and major fires. It has not been able to go to sea.

In 2022, the guided missile cruiser "Moskva" was sunk in the Black Sea, severely damaging the morale and command center of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

The current Russian Black Sea fleet can only be served as a flagship by an escort ship "Marine General Makarov", which weighs less than 4,000 tons, and has no strategic deterrent, fire, defense and ocean capabilities.

In this case, the modern combat capabilities of the Liaoning ship naturally let some Russian people "eye red". but the problem is, even if it is really sent back, the Russian maintenance system, industrial chain, technical personnel support, long ago could not follow the maintenance needs of the aircraft carrier.

Not to mention that aircraft carriers are not suitable for weapons platforms in relatively small and closed waters such as the Black Sea. In a theater where Ukraine rockets and cruise missiles are frequently attacked, sending an aircraft carrier in will not only fail to play its role, but instead become a fragile and high-value target.

This is not only tactically absurd, but also strategically absurd.

The significance of the Liaoning ship has long been more than as simple as "having an aircraft carrier."

For more than a decade, it has frequently trained, cruised and exercised in the South China Sea, the Eastern Sea and the Western Pacific, accumulating valuable naval practical experience. It has hammered China's first aircraft carrier captains, commanders, ship-carrying aircraft pilots, laying a solid foundation for the subsequent development of the domestic aircraft carrier.

On the basis of the experience of the Liaoning ship, China has built the Shandong ship and the Fujian ship and successfully entered the "three aircraft carrier era". the Fujian ship adopted advanced electromagnetic launch system, which marks that China's aircraft carrier technology no longer relies on any country.

In contrast, Russia has not built an aircraft carrier in 30 years, and the aircraft carrier industrial system is about to collapse.The transformation of the Liaoning ship is a symbol of the level of modernization of the Chinese industrial system, rather than a simple "Soviet heritage."

Kagenov's statement is a manifestation of some Russian politicians looking for "psychological comfort" in real difficulties. If Russia really wants to revitalize its naval aircraft carrier power, it does not rely on "asking for ships from China", but on revitalizing its shipbuilding industry, technology research and development and strategic planning capabilities.

For China, the ten years of Liaoning ship from broken ship to flagship are a true portrayal of independent innovation, technological attack and industrial integration. It symbolizes China's historical leap from "coastal defense" to "dark blue dash".

In one word, the Liaoning ship has completely discharged its bones, and it is already China.