The Polyus was a violation of pretty much every space treaty. It was a clear weaponization of space designed to shoot down US satellites. Gorbachev knew that any attempt to use it would bring US retaliation in a variety of ways the USSR couldn&#x27;t handle: move more nukes close to the USSR, ramp up nuke production, launch Reagan&#x27;s SDI missile shield concepts, build large missile shields in Europe, etc.<p>Russia is not known for respecting treaties it signs, so I&#x27;m sure Reagan had some backchannel talks to Gorby over space weaponization that spooked him. Both backed off eventually. Reagan&#x27;s SDI went nowhere and morphed into the SM anti-missile systems in use today and the Polyus, of course, failed to achieve orbit.