SOLVED: Why Russia's Aircraft Carrier Pumps Out So Much Black Smoke

Poor maintenance was my first guess. After reading the article and finding this, "improper calibration in the preheating or injection mechanisms, the Mazut injected into the combustion chamber might not have had time to combust fully—in other words, the partially burned products are causing the black smoke." I then waded through the article to find that Mazut was the heavy fuel oil abandoned by the US Navy and most other Navies in the world. This heavier oil requires more work to burn and more maintenance for clean combustion, which rarely happens; Hence more smoke!