McDonald’s to withdraw from Russia

New York – American fast-food giant McDonald’s said yesterday it will exit Russia in the wake of the Ukraine invasion, ending a more than three-decade run begun in the hopeful period near the end of the Cold War.

The restaurant chain, which launched in Moscow in January 1990 to great fanfare almost two years before the Soviet Union was dissolved, characterised the withdrawal as difficult but necessary.

“The humanitarian crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, and the precipitating unpredictable operating environment, have led McDonald’s to conclude that continued ownership of the business in Russia is no longer tenable, nor is it consistent with McDonald’s values,” the company said in a statement.

The chain is looking to sell “its entire portfolio of McDonald’s restaurants in Russia to a local buyer”.

The burger giant is one of numerous foreign firms that have pulled out of the country or suspended operations following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Earlier yesterday, French automaker Renault announced it had handed over its Russian assets to the government, marking the first major nationalisation since the onset of Western sanctions against Moscow’s military campaign.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into pro-Western Ukraine on 24 February, triggering unprecedented sanctions and sparking an exodus of foreign corporations such as H&M, Starbucks and Ikea.

In March, citing “unspeakable suffering to innocent people”, McDonald’s closed all its 850 restaurants in Russia, where it says it employs 62 000 workers.

But yesterday the “Big Mac” maker went a step further, saying the company “is pursuing the sale of its entire portfolio of McDonald’s restaurants in Russia to a local buyer.”