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Politico (20 February 2023)

BY BARBARA MOENS AND LEONIE KIJEWSKI

The logo on their coffee cups now stands for “Vkusno i tochka,” Russian for “Tasty, period.” But the young women huddling outside the restaurant off Red Square still call it by its old name: МcDonald’s. 

Despite the rebranding, the food tastes much as it always did, they said. But the void left by other Western names is less easily filled. 

In the mall behind them, the shop windows of fashion brands such as H&M and Zara are now shuttered. Some of the sanctions that hit Russia after the invasion in Ukraine on February 24 last year, like the freezing of the international payment system SWIFT, have been imposed by Western governments. Others, such as the exit of McDonald’s, are the result of decisions by multinationals.

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