Floating-Casino Bid Became China’s Biggest Aircraft Carrier
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The Varyag was to be a 1,000-feet-long Admiral Kuznetsov-class warship, a platform for several dozen fighter jets as well as eight or 10 helicopters. Then the former Soviet Union fell apart in 1991, and Ukraine inherited the still-unfinished vessel with a ski-jump incline at one end to help launch aircraft.
In 1992, as the former Soviet republics stumbled out of communism, construction of the ship ceased altogether, Bloomberg Businessweek reports in its Jan. 30 issue. Ukraine couldn’t afford to complete the vessel, the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS reported.