AFP, published on Wednesday, March 09, 2022 at 4:17 p.m.
Muscovites said goodbye on Wednesday to their favorite brands like McDonald’s and Starbucks, symbols of Russia’s openness to the West, which decided to suspend their activity there because of the conflict in Ukraine.
18-year-old dance student Lena Sidorova loved going to the iconic McDonald’s in Pushkin Square, the first major Western – and most iconic – brand to open in the very center of Moscow on January 31, 1990, a major event for the Soviets in full turmoil under perestroika.
“I hope it’s a temporary measure,” said the young girl, for whom the sanctions “are not the fault of Russia, but of the West”.
McDonald’s, which has 850 restaurants in Russia, is the favorite place of two other Muscovites, Stepan Grountov and Stanislav Logvinov, two students at a transport university.
“It’s a shame, but what is the relationship” between McDonald’s and the conflict in Ukraine? Asks Stepan, a 17-year-old Belarusian.
For him, the closure of this place where “everyone goes to a party” is “a tragedy”.
– “The Donbass is worth Mcdo” –
But, 32 years after the opening of the restaurant in Place Pouchkine which had aroused such enthusiasm that Muscovites were queuing for hours to access it, the tone has changed for many interlocutors.
“Let them close if they want!”, Annoys Nikolaï Kopylov, 42, who comes out of the restaurant with a Big Mac in his hand. “Donbass is worth McDonald’s,” adds the Muscovite, winking at the bright, cold March sun.
“The lives saved in the Donbass (pro-Russian separatist territory in eastern Ukraine that Moscow claims to defend against a” genocide “, Editor’s note) are much more important than eating well”, abounds Stanislav, 18 years old.
Vassili Ivanov, 40, is of the same opinion: “Close whatever you want, we will only be stronger”, exclaims this former soldier, who judges that the conflict in Ukraine is linked to the fact that “the NATO surrounds us” and emphasizes having “the greatest respect for Putin, alone against the whole world”.
– “Hit hard” –
Same tone with the regulars of another American brand, the Starbucks coffee chain, which also announced its upcoming temporary closure of its 130 cafes in Russia.
“I like their coffee, which always reminds me of my years working in the United States,” says Svetlana Issaïeva, a 42-year-old manager at a Starbucks a stone’s throw from the Kremlin.
“It’s sad that this is happening in our country, but for us it’s not a problem (…) It’s an opportunity for Russia to build its own economy,” she says.
Next door, Aliona, 23, works on her computer placed between plates containing the remains of her lunch.
Herself a native of Donbass, who came to work in Moscow 18 months ago, she says she is “shocked” by the decision of the major Western brands to close their doors in Russia.
“Westerners have always differentiated between the government and the people,” she says.
“However, here, they precisely punish this layer of 20% of the population, this famous middle class traditionally considered as pro-Western”, is surprised this young woman who prefers to keep her last name silent.
She claims that all her relatives criticize the Russian intervention in Ukraine. And yet, she notes, “they are the ones who are hit hard.”