They bought Mistrals from France. Why wouldn't they buy LHDs at least from China?
It is not impossible, but the rationale for buying Mistrals at the time was because the Mistral purchase from France was accompanied by ToT and workshare for Russian shipyards (half of each of the two Mistrals they bought were fabricated in Russia).
That is to say, the goal of the Mistral purchase wasn't simply to have LHDs, but also to develop some shipyard competencies.
With the failure and cancellation of the delivery of the completed ships, Russia didn't get the LHDs they wanted, but their shipyards did complete much of the work they were contracted for. Which is important.
Since then, Russia has initiated its own Pr 23900 LHD class -- again partly because they want LHDs, but also partly because they need to support their own shipyards in building complex naval ships.
So the question of "why wouldn't they buy LHDs at least from China" imo is the wrong one -- instead it should be "does Russia want LHDs due to an urgent requirement for LHD capability, or is there major industry/shipbuilding factors as well"?
IMO, I'm sure Russia would love to have a couple of LHDs in service within a few years, which I'm sure that China could complete and deliver to them faster than Russia's projected entry into service for their Pr 23900s (which itself is likely to experience delays).
But I don't think Russia is so desperate for LHDs that they would be willing to have their shipyards lose out on the valuable work and experience of developing and building their own ships, given shipbuilding of naval ships is a strategic industry.
