Remembering the 1980s, Eastern Bloc consumer-grade batteries were bad enough to destroy appliances. Soviet batteries in particular; it was a known rule that if

Remembering the 1980s, Eastern Bloc consumer-grade batteries were bad enough to destroy appliances. Soviet batteries in particular; it was a known rule that if you can find a GDR or Czechoslovak-made battery for your radio etc., you just don't risk a "Sdelano v CCCP" one. If Soviet space engineering suffered from the same problem, which is likely (already Korolev fought a massive and angry battle against badly manufactured satellite parts), there is quite a lot of batteries aging dangerously up there.