in Moscow, as elsewhere in Russia, McDonald’s lowers the curtain

McDonald’s announced Tuesday that it will temporarily close 850 of its restaurants in Russia. The American franchise has 62,000 people in the country and opened its first restaurant there on January 31, 1990 under the USSR. In Moscow, the event leaves no one indifferent.

32 years after opening, Russia’s first McDonald’s is serving its last customers. Like other American franchise restaurants in Russia, it is closed until further notice. © Radio France

32 years after opening, McDonald’s on Pushkinskaya Square, in the heart of Moscow, has just been renovated. 66-year-old Tatyana was there on the day of its opening … January 31, 1990. Then she stood in line for three hours to eat a burger. “I was 35, I was young, there were a lot of people… It was brand new, we had never seen anything like it. The country has changed. wind of change.”

This morning, March 9, the symbolic establishment of the Russian capital is serving its last visitors. On the 13th day of the war in Ukraine, the fast-food restaurant chain announced on Tuesday that it was temporarily closing its 850 restaurants in the country. Tatiana took the American injunction rather poorly. “I don’t understand why I’m being punished. It’s as if I and the country are one and the same. Why did we deserve this so badly? It’s really unpleasant. It’s insulting, insulting, and when I don’t understand why, it’s even more disturbing.”

All McDonald’s restaurants in Russia, like the Chistye Prudi restaurant in Moscow, are closing their doors in response to the Kremlin’s military actions in Ukraine. © Radio France

Max is disappointed. “I can’t have breakfast anymore. I work nearby, it was convenient. But the 18-year-old already has an alternative: “Okay, I’ll go eat barbecue.” Forty-year-old Boris, on the contrary, is delighted that the masks are falling:

Will McDonald’s be closed? Thank God ! We are sanctioned, Well, we, we will not come again!

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In recent days, store closures have become more frequent in Moscow, Ekaterina notes. “I have a feeling that they are trying to deprive us of something. But the companies that leave will be replaced by others. Many Korean or Chinese companies that have not had access to our market before.”

To date, about 300 international companies have announced they are leaving or limiting their activities in Russia.