I could not agree more with you Raellus.
It would be far better and more plausible to have the Soviet Union discover a variety of Rare Earth Elements (REEs) within Soviet territory.
Rare Earth minerals are vital for electronics and are in everything from communications and medical equipment to catalytic converters for pollution reduction.
The modern world could not function without them.
China has traditionally been the world's largest supplier of REEs and dominated the world market through various tactics such as economic bullying.
China makes a staggering amount of foreign currency by being the number one seller of REEs.
If the Soviets discover massive reserves of REEs in their territory, it could be a source of economic tension between the USSR and China. They might even try more overt ways to prevent each other from being the world supplier.
They might even get into military clashes over it.
So, give some remote area of Russia a significant deposit of REEs and they will be rolling in the cash. It might even be a causus belli for war with China.
When the USSR starts to threaten restrictions on the sale of REEs to Western nations, it might even give the West cause for conflict with the Soviet Union.
And I didn't have to make up a whole new timeline with McGuffins to get this to work.
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