According to CNN:

Kazakh Steppe: A Central Asian country and former Soviet Republic, extends from the Caspian Sea in the west to the Altai Mountains at its eastern border with China and Russia.

What The Soviet’s Did

The Soviet designed to take the Cold War into space. But after just one flight, it was a total failure and now the ruins of what was called the Buran program are left to rust in the steppe of Kazakhstan.Two shuttles and a rocket lie in disused hangars, not far from the launchpad of the first flight, at the Balkonur Cosmodrome. It is still used today to send and retrieve astronauts from the International Space Station.

NASA’s shuttle was basically a space truck, designed to haul large cargo into orbit at the request of the Pentagon, which planned to use it to deploy military satellites. The USSR wanted a clone with the same ability. It was just another part of the arms race.

The first shuttle had been completed after four years and the Soviets have just started building the office of Buran in 1980. Soviets must have studied NASA’s designs because there was an urge in the Soviet defense industry to blindly copy whatever the Americans built.  ”When the Buran was finally unveiled, in 1988, the similarity have been discussed and The New York Times wrote even the paint job, white with black trim, is much the same.”

Buran’s  Shuttle:

The Buran had emergency ejects seats for all the crew members, it was free from the specific designs flaw that contributed to the destruction of the two space shuttles in flight. ” Oleg Kotov, a Russian cosmonaut who’s spent more than 500 days in space, said in 2011 that these details could have made the Buran safer.

It’s First And Is It’s Last:

Just a year before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Buran’s lone flight was completely successful in 1988. The program was suspended and canceled by Boris Yeltsin in 1993. ” After the collapse of the Soviet Union, there simply was no money left to use it for the civilian missions that could still have been preformed. There was no fundamental need for it in the immediate future of the Soviet Space Program.”

Why Are They Still Here?

They are left to rot in an unlocked building for nearly three decades because there has never been enough interest and money to put them into museum exhibits. Also, it’s impossible to transport the vehicles to other 3 locations in Russia or abroad (foreign country or countries).