Former McDonald’s restaurants reopen this Sunday, June 12, 2022 in Russia with a new owner and under a new brand, more than three decades following the arrival of the famous American fast food chain in the country.
This reopening takes place as the country celebrates the “Russia Day”in the establishment of Pushkin Square in Moscow, where McDonald’s opened for the first time in Russia in January 1990.
In the early 1990s, as the Soviet Union was collapsing, McDonald’s epitomized the thawing of Cold War tensions and introduced millions of Russians to American food and culture. The demise of the brand is now a powerful symbol of how Russia and the West are once once more turning their backs on each other.
Former McDonald’s licensee takes over restaurants
Last month, McDonald’s announced that it was selling its restaurants in Russia to one of its local licenseesAlexander Govor, in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and the wave of Western outrage and sanctions that followed.
The emblematic « arches d’or » of the McDonald’s logo have been dismantled at the Moscow and Saint Petersburg sites, where they will make way for a new logo featuring two fries and a hamburger steak on a green background. The reopening will initially concern 15 sites in Moscow and its region.
Alexander Govor said he plans to expand the new, yet to be named brand to 1,000 locations nationwide and reopen all of the chain’s restaurants in two months.
