Indeed, these are probably similar. I had a friend travel relatively recently to Russia, Ukraine and the zone and he says that although he didn't suffer anything odd, the general feeling around borders was... tense.

I guess the game could be classified as dystopian for its day-to-day change in the regulations and permits needed... It kind of makes it into a mock of the "real" strong border policy of some of these countries (and many others around the world)