US definitely were helping to bankrupt... but then just before the putsch in August 1991 USA got really worried that USSR will split in parts, and the nightmare of managing relations with multiple nuclear states led them to support Gorbachev and USSR, until it actually broke. Then the work of gathering all nuclear armaments into one state - Russia - was going on, along with support of Russian scientists (lest them go to places like Iran and help them with their projects). That's one of the big reasons we have ISS now...
Re:Mikhail Gorbachev has died
by flavius29663 on Tuesday August 30, 2022 @06:52PM
(#32656191)
Maybe you're not aware how much the USSR was spending on defense, espionage, space programs...By the end of the decade they ended up spending 14% of the GDP on military, trying to keep up with the US
what?!
It was pretty much the USSR policies that forced them into bankrupcy.... as it did in every other socialist state.
source: am from another former socialist country, that also doesn't exist anymore.