No, she was the flagship of their Black Sea Fleet. It wasn't large by American (or Chinese) standards, but at least on paper it would have been a match for a battle fleet from any of the other nations.

The key words, of course, are "at least on paper". As I pointed out in the article, a naval tradition is surprisingly important, and despite the efforts of Soviet 0ADM Gorshkov before the USSR disintegrated, Russia doesn't have one. Nor do they have the *cultural mindset* that allowed Japan to humiliate them at the battle of Tsushima in 1905. The Japanese took the lessons from British military advisors seriously and used what was for the time modern ships (built by the Brits) and modern tactics to devastate the Russians who had assumed they would be able to simply sweep the Japanese from the seas.

Japan's rise, btw, is why I would caution any naval leader to not underestimate China. Their cultures may be very different by Asian standards, but their mindsets...well, look how China has modernized in the past forty years - is it really so different from Japan's Meiji Reformation that gave them a Navy that decisively defeated what was then considered a world-class navy?