"The Soviet Union lagged behind the West". Comment.

Explanation

The Soviet Union lagged behind the West in technology, infrastructure (transport, power, etc.) as it could not cope with the political and economic aspirations of people and resulted in:
(i) Though wages continued to grow but productivity and technology fell considerably behind that of the West.
(ii) This led to shortage of consumer goods and increased food import every year.
(iii) The above mentioned reasons made the Soviet economy stagnant