When I was a camp counselor at Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama, during the summer of 1992, I was enthralled by the comparison between the USA Space Shuttle and the USSR Buran.
The Soviet Union had only recently collapsed, and the Soviet Cold War with us Americans was still fresh on my mind.
Below is a side-by-side comparison model of the two systems. The article in National Interest does a great job of exploring whether or not the Soviets ripped off the American design.
Comparison models of the Soviet Buran shuttle on the left and the American Space Shuttle on the right. Note that the two models are not to scale as the American shuttle is about 20 meters larger in length than the Buran. Christo, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
It’s an interesting question, and looking at the two models leaves little doubt. However, as the article points out, significant technical differences exist between the two systems with some argument that the Buran might be a better system.
Yet, the Buran only flew into space once. At the same time, the US Space Shuttle has had over 100 missions into space.
While espionage is highly likely, a direct comparison is not fair to either program.