It just liberalized. USSR stands for Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics and they're just as infested with megacorps as the rest of the still-habitable parts of the planet
The idea of "Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics" is taken from real life. It was an attempt to reform Soviet Union into less centralized federal system. They wanted to give it a new name but also save acronym (USSR/СССР). This replacement never happened because of August Coup (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Union_Treaty).
:yea: however, atleast in the game its shown that USSR has better living standards than US like free healthcare, education and shit. In game version of the U.S. is basically ancapistan (not that different from real life ig)
Strictly speaking Pondsmith wrote it as if Gorbachev's plan had worked out like Deng's instead of leading to liberal/fascist coups dissolving the USSR. He's got some absolutely galaxy brained takes and ideas but as far as libs go he's weirdly endearing.