A sub that can hit Chinese shipping and send cruise missiles into Beijing won’t be much help?
Not the point, Geron. Sure, if there was a general invasion of Siberia by PLA forces, that sub would play a significant role in making life difficult for the PLAN, but I doubt if they would sic it on container ships. The Liaoning would be a much more scrumptious target. And, besides that, Russia still has a significant array of surface and submarine assets to go after merchantmen if that is indeed their desire.
My point is that if the Chinese ever got a wild hair up their butts and decided to invade and annex a chunk of Siberia, that sub is not going to be much use in the land battles that would inevitably result, so I strongly doubt it was designed primarily, or even incidentally to deter Chinese aggression.
That’s a hunter killer. A creature of the depths. It’s prey is other submarines or major surface combatants. Of course it has a strategic mission brief as well, but if they get to the point where they are flinging cruise missiles around, Russia’s Strategic Rocket Forces and short ranged IRBMs would be a much more potent worry.