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What is interesting to me about the time period reference was that this is when Mikhail Gorbachev was pushing Glasnost against a lot of resistance from the hard liners in Moscow. His argument was simply that the USSR could no longer maintain the tit-for-tat military buildup in the wake of growing internal problems exacerbated by the expensive Chernobyl disaster cleanup they were still attempting to deal with. I read some pieces out of Europe several years ago that said that Gorbachev had been privately asking the Reagan administration to make some military moves to further underscore his point that the Soviets were losing the Cold War and would be better off seeking peace.
This test shot could very well have been to “help” Gorbachev in those efforts.