During the Cold War, Russia insisted on other Warsaw pact nations buying/license manufacturing (Often at insanely high royalties) Russian weapons, vehicles, and equipment. This was a critical error. Russia held dominance over Eastern Germany and Czechoslovakia, both of which were skilled designers of military technologies. These two nations, which would have been glad to have their own armaments industries, could have easily come up with goods far better than what Russia was churning out, and would have likely been willing to sell them. Plus, Eastern Europe as a whole had technological capabilities that the Soviet economy just couldn't match. The end result of the Soviets letting Eastern Europe keep it's technological industries on par with the West, as they were in the early Cold War, and with letting all Warsaw Pact nations, especially East Germany and Czechoslovakia, produce their own weapons designs could have been a Soviet Union with equipment and technology on par with the West. I'll be damned if that wouldn't have been totally badass.