A Soviet carrier acquired in 1991 could redirect British naval aviation

If the Royal Navy somehow acquired a Soviet nuclear carrier in 1991 and had to keep it for several decades, what would it do with the ship?

Convert it to British systems and use it as a transition carrier, likely preserving catapult aviation and influencing later aircraft and Queen Elizabeth-class decisions.

The imagined acquisition begins with a joke about a Royal Navy crew buying an unattended carrier in Ukraine as Soviet authority disappears. The practical answer proposes Sea Harrier operations and substantial work to convert the ship to British systems. If the carrier were available brand new in 1991, twenty or thirty years of service could make it a bridge to the Queen Elizabeth class. Existing catapult aviation might then favor the F-35C and E-2 Hawkeye for continuity with the ship already in service. The later British carriers would probably still use gas-turbine power, although a nuclear alternative is considered. In that nuclear branch of the counterfactual, France might buy and build the same design rather than pursue its separate PANG project.