McDonald’s restaurants flung open their doors in Moscow once again on Sunday under new Russian ownership and a new name: Vkusno & tochka, which translates as “Tasty and that’s it.”
The new, post-war dawn for Russia’s fast-food scene will initially see 15 rebranded restaurants open in and around the capital after the US fast-food king turned its back on the country for ethical reasons over the invasion of Ukraine.
The reopening of the outlets, three decades after McDonald’s first opened in Moscow in a symbolic thaw between East and West, could provide a test of how successfully Russia’s economy can become more self-sufficient and withstand Western sanctions.
Oleg Paroev, chief executive of Vkusno & tochka, said the company was planning to reopen 200 restaurants in Russia by the end of June and all 850 by the end of the summer.
“Our goal is that our guests do not notice a difference either in quality or ambience,” Paroev told a media conference in what used to be the first McDonald’s restaurant that opened in Soviet Moscow in 1990.
The rebranded fast-food chain will keep its old McDonald’s interior but will expunge any references to its old name, said Paroev, who was appointed Russia McDonald’s CEO in February, weeks before Moscow invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Paroev said the company would keep “affordable prices” but did not rule out that they would go up slightly in the near term.
‘Vkusno & tochka’: McDonald’s restaurants reopen in Russia under new name
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‘Vkusno & tochka’: McDonald’s restaurants reopen in Russia under new name
- New, post-war dawn for Russia’s fast-food scene will initially see 15 rebranded restaurants open
Arts festival’s decision to exclude Palestinian author spurs boycott
- A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival
SYDENY: A top Australian arts festival has seen the withdrawal of dozens of writers in a backlash against its decision to bar an Australian Palestinian author after the Bondi Beach mass shooting, as moves to curb antisemitism spur free speech concerns.
The shooting which killed 15 people at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Dec. 14 sparked nationwide calls to tackle antisemitism. Police say the alleged gunmen were inspired by Daesh.
The Adelaide Festival board said last Thursday it would disinvite Randa Abdel-Fattah from February’s Writers Week in the state of South Australia because “it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi.”
FASTFACTS
• Abdel-Fattah responded, saying it was ‘a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship.’
• Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival.
Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
Among the boycotting authors, Kathy Lette wrote on social media the decision to bar Abdel-Fattah “sends a divisive and plainly discriminatory message that platforming Australian Palestinians is ‘culturally insensitive.'”
The Adelaide Festival said in a statement on Monday that three board members and the chairperson had resigned. The festival’s executive director, Julian Hobba, said the arts body was “navigating a complex moment.”
a complex and unprecedented moment” after the “significant community response” to the board decision.
In the days after the Bondi Beach attack, Jewish community groups and the Israeli government criticized Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for failing to act on a rise in antisemitic attacks and criticized protest marches against Israel’s war in Gaza held since 2023.
Albanese said last week a Royal Commission will consider the events of the shooting as well as antisemitism and social cohesion in Australia. Albanese said on Monday he would recall parliament next week to pass tougher hate speech laws.
On Monday, New South Wales state premier Chris Minns announced new rules that would allow local councils to cut off power and water to illegally operating prayer halls.
Minns said the new rules were prompted by the difficulty in closing a prayer hall in Sydney linked to a cleric found by a court to have made statements intimidating Jewish Australians.
The mayor of the western Sydney suburb of Fairfield said the rules were ill-considered and councils should not be responsible for determining hate speech.
“Freedom of speech is something that should always be allowed, as long as it is done in a peaceful way,” Mayor Frank Carbone told Reuters.
