Common myth that Soviet stuff was simpler than US stuff, but more reliable and rugged. Applies to small arms but not major weapons systems. Their Naval vessels, and aircraft were FAR more unreliable, and fragile than ours; their tanks had incredibly unreliable, and complicated autoloaders that often tore the arms off crew members.
Much of it NEVER worked. At all. The machinery of the Kuznetsov and Kiev classes (Varyag is Kuznetsov, Minsk is Kiev class) was unreliable...of course, Varyag has never HAD any machinery. And the search radar of the Kuznetsov class was a COMPLETE failure; never worked at all.