PAPER BEAR: Russia is talking about scrapping its only aircraft carrier, putting the troubled ship out of its misery.

The Admiral Kuznetsov, Russia’s sole aircraft carrier which was built during the Soviet-era, was severely damaged last October when the massive Swedish-built PD-50 dry dock at the 82nd Repair Shipyard in Roslyakovo sank with the carrier on board.

The carrier was undergoing an extensive overhaul at the time of the incident.

While the ship was able to pull away from the sinking dry dock, it did not escape unscathed. A heavy crane fell on the vessel, punching a large gash in the hull and deck.

As is, the Kuznetsov is almost always accompanied by tug boats, preparation for practically inevitable problems.

The ship is rarely seen at sea. Between 1991 and 2015, the Kuznetsov, sometimes described as one of the worst carriers in the world, set sail on patrol only six times, and on a 2016 mission in Syria, the carrier saw the loss of two onboard fighter jets in just three weeks.

Putin’s Russia is the Loki of modern geopolitics, able to cause mischief and grief, but barely able to project hard power more than a few miles beyond its own borders. A savvy and ruthless intelligence operation (not to mention all those nukes) allows Moscow to punch above its weight, but its weight since the glory days of the USSR is like the “after” in a Slim Fast ad.