"Мама, мама, а чего это вертолёт на одном месте завис, и дальше не летит?
Это, доченька, у него бензин закончился!"
Russian journalist Sergei Parkhomenko, speaking to the Russian radio station Echo of Moscow, pooh-poohed the military aspects of the deployment, pointing out that the “antique” carrier is not suited for modern naval warfare, that it is not useful as a second airfield for any aircraft operating out of Russia’s Tartus base in Syria, and that the base in Tartus is so small as to not warrant any additional defense.