That stuff was going on right after world war 2. Not in the late 80s and 90s. Like i said it was not perfect but it was not as bad as American gov wants you to believe.
My parents still go to Russia everytime they need medical stuff done. Never any problems. They save Thousands on top of Thousands of dolllars.
Growning up In russia all I the kids around me looked up to American kids, they always had good things to say about american kids. When I came to America, American kids were so brain washed by U.S gov. instead of getting to know me they kept calling me communist. As for Arms race, Russian people trully did believe that Americans were building up their Military because they wante to invade Russia and in return Russia was building up their military.