The existing Ganguts could be discounted in great-power treaty arithmetic because of their limited strategic value. Completed Borodinos in the Far East would present Japan with fast, heavily armed opponents that could not be dismissed so easily. Their survival into the Soviet period might therefore justify inviting Moscow into naval limitation talks. Credible ships could decide whether a state belonged in the diplomatic and regional arms-control calculation.
Notable Point · 10:47-11:19
Borodinos could pull the Soviet Union into treaty talks
Operational Russian battlecruisers would be harder for treaty negotiators and Japan to ignore than the slow Gangut class.