system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[S.T.A.L.K.E.R] Is the Zone a net boon or curse for Ukraine and neighboring states?

The Zone is clearly an excellent source of fascinating specimens and research data that would be of great value to outside businesses, institutes, wealthy individuals, and states. One can only dream of the incredible inventions and technology being developed from the scientific bounty of the Zone. 

However, I imagine that the mutated horrors that populate the Zone are a grave danger to the populace. Remember the terror caused by that wild bloodsucker police shot almost 30km from the quarantine line?  The steady flow of desperate men with empty pockets and full holsters could be dangerous in the future. Seems like the Zone might also be a tempting target for a Russian or American "humanitarian intervention." 

I don't follow the news much these days, but I've heard intriguing rumors. Can anyone shed light on the political/social/economic impact the Zone has had both locally and on the world stage?
gpt
You know how in the late 20th century countries with oil attracted all kinds of religious fundamentalists and iron-fisted dictators and "democratic liberation" from world powers? And how people living near oil operations reported all kinds of problems with their water and general health problems? The Zone is like that time a thousand.

The best part is what was revealed in the Strugatsky account. Countries drop "research teams" in the Zone without local consent. The local agencies who are supposed to guard its boundary just take bribes and look the other way because *everybody* is going into the Zone to bring stuff out. The tech coming out of there is being used to power cars and supposedly solve the energy crisis, so the media *loves* praising world powers and talking about cool science-y stories about the Zone, and completely ignores any real news from there.

No *official* mention of weapons tech coming out of the Zone, but it's happening. It's illegal under the amended Geneva Convention, of course. The Strugatskys mention something that sounds a lot like a research facility being melted by gray goo. If you read the reports on what tech from the Zone looks like, it's obvious that it's worse than plutonium.

There are rumors that people living near the Zone get rounded up by the government and detained in a holding facility just outside of it, even if they were smart enough to move out years ago. Supposedly it's to protect the general population from some kind of imaginary "contamination" attached to anyone who was near the Zone during the Visitation. Entering the Zone is a death sentence, and being unlucky enough to live near it is almost as bad.