well ...
when russia decides to build a new carrier it won't face much difficulty
but bear in mind they wont do it right now because they are smart enough.
If Russia decides to build a new carrier they will face much difficulty, I will explain responding to your points.
1. about shipyards
they have st petersburg which has already built 24000 ton kirov class and has the capability to build large civil vessels so it can do the job .(but i don't think they will do it there) because they are building a new 100,000 tonne capacity dry dock at sevmash which would be ideal for building the carrier
It took them 12 years just to complete their flagship. 90% of it was completed by 1991 and took another 7 years to finish the rest. St. Pete yards have zero experience building aviation cruisers. Those were built in No. 444 yard in Ukraine. Most of the designers, such as those on the Ulyanovsk, were Ukrainian and not likely to help again.
Baltiysk Zavod already has a 100,000t drydock but they build one at Sevmash who has zero experience building large ships. It is a mismatch of skills that need to be fused.
2. Propulsion.
They have nuclear propulsion in their kirov class cruisers and have built a fair amount of nuclear subs too . also their diesel propulsion system are good so propulsion shouldn't be that much of a challenge
They would be better off going nuclear. They have far less problems with that than the conventional boilers. Kuznetsov's propulsion design was a disaster from day one as well as the Kyivs.
3. they have built and designed large ships since ages. also getting designs from a foreign country is not that big a problem.
"They" used to include Ukraine, now it doesn't. The largest ships they make are ice breakers but that was years ago. The cargo tonnage are far less. Their shipyards have become 3-5 times more costly to build than competitors with 95% of tonnage being built abroad. Shipyards are in bankruptcy and have lost most of their talent. It will be hard to overcome when designing a state of the art carrier, much less building one. The reason they are after Mistral is to get our shipbuilding technology which doesn't bode well for their homegrown industry.
now the two areas that they lack in are
advanced building techniques and CATOBAR carriers . frankly i don't have any idea if they can do CATOBAR or not but i still remain optimistic that they can do it or get somebody to help them on it if they can't.
If they are willing to spend the money on CATOBAR they can get it.
now Advanced building techniques is their biggest Achilles Heel and that is why they are planning to buy 5 mistral class ships. they have said that they want to build 4 ships in their own shipyards. first they'll get expertise in building and then they will go around making their own carrier.
Very true, but Mistral is a far cry from a 60,000 tonne CVN. The time to take to absorb the technologies will be great and then to apply them on a bigger scale even longer.
according to me they will start building their new carrier only after they have completed a couple of mistral class ships but the design and configuration phase could start earlier.
Agree with that, but this project is going to take far longer than projected dates. They plan to start construction in 2012 but they aren't even close to having the equipment or facilties for such a venture. When they absorb the Mistral production it will be almost 2014 until they get modern equipment and training. Translating that to Russian CVN construction will take several more years. I wouldn't even dream about seeing a Russian carrier before 2025.