Russia might decommission their only aircraft carrier.

Russia's Admiral Kunzetsov. The National Interest. 

Russia might decommission their only aircraft carrier and not replace it. The National Interest. The  Admiral Kuznetsov was damaged in a dry dock accident that also destroyed the dry dock. The PD-50 dry dock was the only one capable of repairing the ship in Russia's northern fleet. Russia is also unable to replace the Swedish built PD-50 due to international sanctions. Russia's options with the Admiral Kuznetsov are limited without a dry dock and will either have to move a dry dock, tow the Kuznetsov or come up with some other kind of option. With all of those options being expensive, they may decide to just scrap the ship. 

My Comment:

I said that the dry dock accident that damaged the Admiral Kuznetsov was hugely important. At best it was going to cost millions of dollars to repair the damage to the ship, let alone the cost of the dry dock itself. 

Now Russia is asking itself the pretty obvious question as to if it is worth it. Sending the ship to the scrapyard isn't a great option as it would leave Russia's fleet without naval based air cover and limit their ability to project power. They don't have plans to make any new carriers and would lag behind America, France, the UK, Japan and China. 

But repairing the ship isn't really feasible anymore either. The transport cost alone would be ruinous and dangerous and that's true for either the ship or the dry dock. And building a new dry dock doesn't seem to be an option either. 

Of course it's not like the Admiral Kuznetsov was that great of a warship. It has long been known as a cursed ship, with many accidents and problems. Their deployment to Syria was marked with accidents and ended with the fighter complement being transferred to land bases.  

I also don't know if Russia needs an aircraft carrier. They have little hope of countering the US Navy's air power and would be better severed with smaller ships that can provide air cover via missiles as apposed to aircraft. 

Russia seems to realize this and has been building up their smaller ships. These ships aren't anywhere near as powerful as their bigger ships, but are much cheaper to produce and operate. They aren't great but spending billions of dollars on bigger ships that still can't compete with other navies isn't that smart. 

Regardless, there is still a chance of Russia trying to keep their aircraft carrier. Despite the relative uselessness of the carrier and the extreme cost of fixing it, having a carrier is prestigious. Russia wants to keep the image of a superpower even if they can't actually become one. Not having a carrier would be a major downgrade in prestige, even if it isn't worth the actual cost. Time will tell what Russia decides.