Russia's navy will not be carrying Putin's banner into the blue waters of the world:
In keeping with Moscow’s claim to great power status, and consistent with the image of a successful foreign intervention created by its operations in Syria, the Navy has been at the forefront of these claims. This is not to deny genuine modernization across the forces structure, or specifically within the Navy, but the actual level of its success is certainly open to question.
A fleet is one of the three traditional sources of Russian weakness, soaking up men and money.
Russia is a land power and has enough problems protecting their long borders without wasting money on a blue water navy when ground and air power are far more important.
Of course, focusing on ground and air power can be screwed up, too, if the Russians try to build an army in western Russia capable of defeating NATO in Poland--another traditional source of Russian weakness.
