S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (series)/Headscratchers

COP - Military Actions
The commander of Operation Fairways actions don't make sense inside Pripyat. When holed up with around fifteen Elite Spetnzaz troops inside a city full of hostile (insane) monolith troops, mutants and zombies, sending out a mere three troops for zone recon is suicide. After the major confirms they've been killed he sends a further one recon troop out (!) whom gets possessed by a controller, three more demolition troops (who also get killed) and the lieutenant (whom the major saves from inside a refrigerator).

Marked by the Zone Achievement
When Major Degtayrev takes 3 or more anabiotics during consecutive emissions in Call of Pripyat, it has the side effect of silencing "the voices inside his head", and the ability to shrug off further emissions unaided. From a canon story perspective, wouldn't OD'ing on a untested, unknown substance be grounds for immediate discharge within the USS, especially when emissions are easy enough to avoid by hiding indoors, and anabiotics are not essential to the mission at hand due to the abundance of cover ?
 * Well, it's not like the other soldiers HAVE to figure out by themselves that Degtayrev took the Anabiotics at any point, especially since they'd be more concerned about the emission and finding cover for themselves rather than paying attention to just what the hell Dagtyev over there is trying to swallow, and even if they did find out, I doubt they'd be concerned with it seeing as how they have more important matters on their hands.
 * Also note that the local military don't particularly care about their own grunts getting piss-drunk or high.
 * It's not exactly OD'ing, he just doesn't have a constant stream of thoughts any more because his nervous system has been permanently damaged, it's just a side-effect. You don't have to overdose to get the side-effects of cocaine, you just have to take enough. Time between doses doesn't matter.
 * Also, the chemical used is tetrodoxine, a chemical of which the effects are well-documented to say the least. It's extremely dangerous to ingest it when not properly dosed.

What the hell's an RU?
The only thing I could think of is Russian rubles, which is RUB and the game takes place in the Ukraine.
 * "Resource Units?"
 * The game takes place in the Zone of Alienation, which encompasses parts of the Ukraine and Belarus. The currency of Belarus is the ruble as well, so at least it's plausible the people inside the Zone would use them. As to why they use RU instead of RUB, no idea. Possibly something to do with the Cyrillic abbreviation ?
 * I would hope I'm not getting ~4000 Belarus rubles (which is BYR) for an artifact...
 * Just for laughs, as of 1/10/12, 4000 Belarus rubles is about 47 cents American.