Well, at least in that case it seems like a conscious design decision. Not sure how much of the state of the art design and tech was driven by "I like the colour" or "the supplier is in my state".
The Soviet design bureaus certainly had their irrationalities. They behaved like big, vertically-integrated companies, and preferred 'their' stuff over the other design bureaus' stuff.
Soviet gear was robust because robustness and repairability was priorities as a design criterion. It's not an automatic product of how they doled out work, or of their defense industry generally.
Soviet gear was robust because robustness and repairability was priorities as a design criterion. It's not an automatic product of how they doled out work, or of their defense industry generally.