That's a great article.
It also makes me chuckle when people take Wikipedia as gospel. The data regarding this carrier is "interesting" because the dates appear to be inaccurate.
Whilst serving on HMS Ark Royal in 1988 we were the first western ship to "catch" this vessel (i.e. Set eyes on it at sea) as we were transiting towards the Suez canal, and they were carrying out aircraft testing at the time. Wikipedia has a different set of dates but I do have pictures!! 8) 8)
Our full "off watch" crew were on deck snapping pictures and we had Helos out grabbing as much information and data as possible and the Russians wouldn't allow anyone above deck for the duration of the whole encounter.
Just an aside and apologies for the distraction however it's an interesting ditty.