Originally laid down in 1985 for the Soviet Navy as the Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier Riga, she was launched on 4 December 1988 and renamed Varyag in 1990.^[​10] After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, construction was halted and the ship was put up for sale by Ukraine. The stripped hulk was purchased in 1998 and towed to the Dalian naval shipyard in northeast China.

This is my version of Varyag had it been completed as it was supposed to, not Liaoning.