Buran was intended to be a carbon copy of Shuttle, but Soviets weren't able to put engines there because of weight constraints and they had no solid boosters either do they had to improvise.
Yep. You can have dirt-cheap housing (which won't be yours btw) and cheap transportation, but you will have to overpay for rest of the goods. And wait in extraordinary long queues.
You can experience some of the that life yourself - in North Korea or Ukrainian regions occupied by Russia for example.
I've heard the wonderful assumption that The Wall in Berlin was built to actually cut the flow of migrants from... The West, seeking refuge in socialistic paradise of East Germany. Too bad that real situation was completely different.
It's not "a laboratory of the German armed forces".
And it's not "clear political conflict" - it's Russia lying about destroying their chemical weapons and instead using them in Europe and UK - see Navalny and Skripal.
And besides, all big cities in Manchuria and Korea were captured only after Japanese surrender.