In the middle 1980's about seventy percent of the industrial output of the Soviet Union was going to the military. Oleg Gordievsky, a KGB official who defected to Britain, ASSURED that at least one third of the total output was going to the military. British intelligence could not believe such a high figure. However later on, Western intelligence sources estimated that it was at least fifty percent. That meant that the rest of the economy would suffer because of the shortages of industrial goods.