What were the features of the new stage of the Cold War? What problems did the USSR face in the international arena?

In the first months of his reign, he proclaimed a course aimed at socio-economic transformation. However, all the changes largely boiled down to administrative measures, strengthening discipline among party officials and at workplaces, exposing corruption in the inner circle of the ruling elite. In some cities of the USSR, law enforcement agencies began to apply measures, the rigidity of which in the 1980s seemed unusual to the population. For example, in Leningrad during working hours, police raids began in cinemas, large department stores and other crowded places, during which documents were totally checked in order to identify absentees at work. The severity of the checks was such that some of them included schoolchildren who were truant from their lessons and decided to attend an afternoon movie show. A few days later, an official letter from law enforcement agencies came to the name of the school director, reporting on the capture of truants with the indication of their names. For several weeks Leningrad was plunged into horror of the new regime, and truants preferred to stay at home, afraid to appear on the street.
Under Andropov, a massive release of licensed gramophone records by popular Western performers of those genres (rock, disco, synth-pop), which were previously considered ideologically unacceptable, began – this was supposed to undermine the economic base of speculation with gramophone records and magnetic recordings.