McDonald’s Temporarily Closes All 850 Russian Locations In Response To Boycott Threats

So much for “Big Mac Diplomacy”.

After waffling on whether to close its Russian restaurants for the past couple of weeks, McDonald’s has just announced plans to temporarily shutter roughly 850 restaurants in Russia, becoming the latest American company to retaliate against Russian President Vladimir Putin by pulling its business in the country.

DETROIT (AP) — McDonald’s says it is temporarily closing 850 restaurants in Russia in response to the Ukraine invasion.

— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) March 8, 2022

Already, American politicians like Sen. Elizabeth Warren have applauded McDonald’s on its decision.

But the decision is bound to have its drawbacks. As Foreign Policy reminded us a couple of years ago, McDonald’s expansion to Moscow during the final days of the Soviet Union became a testament to the notion that globalization would lead to an end to conflict.

In 1996, Tom Friedman offered the thesis that no two countries with a McDonalds would go to war with each other.

That, sadly, proved to be overly optimistic and wrong.

Nevertheless … it seems significant that McDonalds is now shutting down in Russia.https://t.co/HIzdw9bMoj

— Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) March 8, 2022

In recent days, calls for McDonald’s and Coca-Cola to abandon the Russian market have intensified. There were 847 McDonald’s locations in Russia at the end of last year. During Coke’s discussion of its full-year earnings results in February, CEO of Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company (which is responsible for distribution in Russia and Ukraine), had pointed to the two markets as an important driver of growth, CNN reports.

Twitter users are employing the hashtags #boycottMcDonald’s and #boycottCoke (or #boycottPepsi) in response to their operations in Russia.