[Ronin]

How do you figure? China shares a border with Russia thousands of miles long. If they want to grab Siberian resources, which I admit is a big Russian fear, they’re not going to load up an amphibious assault ship. They’ll attack straight across the border, probably through Mongolia.

A fancy Russian sub is not going to be much help in that kind of war.

[GeronL]

A sub that can hit Chinese shipping and send cruise missiles into Beijing won’t be much help?

[GeronL]

China is an export economy. Losing a bunch of these (pictured, bottom) will be very bad for business. I doubt they can grab and hold Siberia quick enough to off-set the immediate losses it would cause.