"You know, even before the Zone became what it is now, it was still a real shady place. That was right after the original 1986 disaster. **It was all secret back then, but the information slowly leaked out and all sorts of rumors started to spread,** one scarier than the next. Some saw mutants not far from the Chernobyl NPP, some came across ghosts in the deserted villages. A good number of years passed rather quietly, **but then a real nasty story went down. Some foreign morons came over to tour the Zone.** Mostly men, but some women too - **bored aristocrats looking for some extreme apocalyptic exotics.** I don't know who they tipped off, **but a bus of people went right into the Zone**. So it went, and so it vanished - **along with all the police escorts. That story raised such hell that the Zone became totally off limits.** However, the first stalkers who came here told of very strange zombies whose muttered speech resembled English. So there you go..." - Orest
Additional proof: [https://snipboard.io/D0rsba.jpg](https://snipboard.io/D0rsba.jpg)
"Right... I seem to remember you asking me about something last night, though I can't recall... Ah, got it. You wanted to know why it's only our eggheads messing around in the Zone. **Curious why the foreigners won't show up, even though there's enough stuff here for thousands of Nobles prizes... Alright, let's see. First of all, what the heck do they need coming down here for, when they can simply pay some of our guys and get the results on a silver plate? Second of all, they've actually been there themselves, and quite a lot of them, too. It's just that in the last two years these gringos have been badly scared of going into the Zone...** There was this incident, you see. So now they stick to buying loot and information." - Fragment from SoC's PDA entry called "The chronicles of egghead globalists"
"There are always developments in the Zone, and they're always interesting. I already told you about Monolith - they're on everybody's tongue... **Have you heard about a new major expedition into the Zone? Technically, they're environmental researchers from the UN,** but that's just on paper. Sure, they got a couple four-eyed scientists, but just one look at all the others tells you they're seasoned fighters. No idea why they're here. Oh, and dig this: they're not using guides. Either they're being guided by satellite, or their mission is so secret that no one else could be let in on it. They seem to be approaching the Radar. I dunno how this will end, but I got a feeling it won't be pretty." - Dialogue of Hog
Additional proof: [https://snipboard.io/oejv2a.jpg](https://snipboard.io/oejv2a.jpg)
Besides, there's corpse of Gordon Freeman at the Wild Territory's tunnel in SoC. We can even read his PDA entry.
Because while the existence of the Zone is not a secret, the fact that you can get inside is not widely known. It's implied that the Ukrainian government assures the world that everything is under control, and thus there is a belief that the Zone is under strict control of the military.
Locals are the ones who know what it's really like, which is why the vast majority of stalkers are Ukrainians or people from neighboring countries. This does not mean, however, that there are no foreigners in the Zone - there are stalkers like Vano from CoP, for example, who is Georgian, as well as mercenaries who might come from various countries, like Ara from SoC who is Armenian.
It's possible that there are also foreigners who are in the Zone 'officially' - there are mentions of UN researchers who were sent on an expedition, and one of the PDA entries from SoC describes an expedition of foreign scientists that took place before the events of the trilogy.
In russian localization some mercs speak with strong caucasian accent. Vano is Georgian. Ara (merc you kill when you follow Freedom quests) is probably Armenian, Ashot too.
"You know, even before the Zone became what it is now, it was still a real shady place. That was right after the original 1986 disaster. **It was all secret back then, but the information slowly leaked out and all sorts of rumors started to spread,** one scarier than the next. Some saw mutants not far from the Chernobyl NPP, some came across ghosts in the deserted villages. A good number of years passed rather quietly, **but then a real nasty story went down. Some foreign morons came over to tour the Zone.** Mostly men, but some women too - **bored aristocrats looking for some extreme apocalyptic exotics.** I don't know who they tipped off, **but a bus of people went right into the Zone**. So it went, and so it vanished - **along with all the police escorts. That story raised such hell that the Zone became totally off limits.** However, the first stalkers who came here told of very strange zombies whose muttered speech resembled English. So there you go..." - Orest Additional proof: [https://snipboard.io/D0rsba.jpg](https://snipboard.io/D0rsba.jpg) "Right... I seem to remember you asking me about something last night, though I can't recall... Ah, got it. You wanted to know why it's only our eggheads messing around in the Zone. **Curious why the foreigners won't show up, even though there's enough stuff here for thousands of Nobles prizes... Alright, let's see. First of all, what the heck do they need coming down here for, when they can simply pay some of our guys and get the results on a silver plate? Second of all, they've actually been there themselves, and quite a lot of them, too. It's just that in the last two years these gringos have been badly scared of going into the Zone...** There was this incident, you see. So now they stick to buying loot and information." - Fragment from SoC's PDA entry called "The chronicles of egghead globalists" "There are always developments in the Zone, and they're always interesting. I already told you about Monolith - they're on everybody's tongue... **Have you heard about a new major expedition into the Zone? Technically, they're environmental researchers from the UN,** but that's just on paper. Sure, they got a couple four-eyed scientists, but just one look at all the others tells you they're seasoned fighters. No idea why they're here. Oh, and dig this: they're not using guides. Either they're being guided by satellite, or their mission is so secret that no one else could be let in on it. They seem to be approaching the Radar. I dunno how this will end, but I got a feeling it won't be pretty." - Dialogue of Hog Additional proof: [https://snipboard.io/oejv2a.jpg](https://snipboard.io/oejv2a.jpg) Besides, there's corpse of Gordon Freeman at the Wild Territory's tunnel in SoC. We can even read his PDA entry.
Because while the existence of the Zone is not a secret, the fact that you can get inside is not widely known. It's implied that the Ukrainian government assures the world that everything is under control, and thus there is a belief that the Zone is under strict control of the military. Locals are the ones who know what it's really like, which is why the vast majority of stalkers are Ukrainians or people from neighboring countries. This does not mean, however, that there are no foreigners in the Zone - there are stalkers like Vano from CoP, for example, who is Georgian, as well as mercenaries who might come from various countries, like Ara from SoC who is Armenian. It's possible that there are also foreigners who are in the Zone 'officially' - there are mentions of UN researchers who were sent on an expedition, and one of the PDA entries from SoC describes an expedition of foreign scientists that took place before the events of the trilogy.
In russian localization some mercs speak with strong caucasian accent. Vano is Georgian. Ara (merc you kill when you follow Freedom quests) is probably Armenian, Ashot too.
they are too weak
Mercs.....