[@PentagonWhite] If it helps your decision at all, the Zone is set to be in western Europe right now, probably Germany (doz industrial factory areas). The cast will be mainly European, with other continentals, including Asians, being rarer. So really it's about which of your two character ideas has the greater incentive to travel that distance westward. I'm sure there are Russian Zones but TBH, how many of them have anything worth scavenging if most their area is farmland?

[@DepressedSoviet] Welcome aboard, with basically the most appropriate username imaginable.