True to his 1945 pledge of support to Tupolev, in late 1946 Stalin ordered Soviet intelligence to covertly get B-29 tires wherever they might be found around the world. This was to be done by establishing bogus surplus companies to buy them. The efforts were directed around former B-29 bases in India (which became independent in 1947), China (now in a civil war) – especially the airbases at Luliang and Chengkung -, and finally inside occupied Japan. Quite remarkably there was also a project to buy and export B-29 tires inside the USA itself. Some of these efforts were broken up by American intelligence, but apparently at least enough used B-29 tires made it to the USSR until Soviet industry mastered the skills in the late 1940s.
