A New Fast-Food Chain is Taking Over McDonald’s in Russia & It Looks Quite Familiar

By
Charleen Teh
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As many readers might already know, many Multinational Corporations (MNCs) have pulled out of Russia ever since the Kremlin government decided to invade Ukraine.

And perhaps it was for maximum impact or something, because the majority of these companies chose the exact same Tuesday (8 Mar) to make the announcement.

Most of McDonald’s outlets in Russia are actually owned by McDonald’s itself, instead of being sold as a franchise to a Russian Food & Beverages company.

Hence, McDonald’s made a statement last Tuesday that they would be closing all 847 McDonald’s outlets in Russia.

McDonald’s Will Be Replaced with Uncle Vanya

For the Russian masses, they don’t have to worry about the closure of McDonald’s for too long though, because a new entity called Uncle Vanya has arrived to take over its place.

According to media reports, they have just filed for a trademark registration with Russian authorities.

Image: cityam.com

Look, I understand that the Cyrillic “B” refers to “V” in Uncle Vanya, but come on, at least put in some effort like… changing the colour scheme or something.

Or maybe don’t just flip the McDonald’s sign 90 degrees clockwise and then add a single yellow vertical line.

You know what, just to prove how easy and bogus their attempt to create a new brand logo was, I’m going to re-create their thought process on pixlr online.

Annnnd we’re done.

Safe to say, the “uncanny” resemblance didn’t go unnoticed by many. 

Uncle Vanya’s Will Be Made in Russia

According to an interview done by Russia’s Interfax news agency, the Mayor of Moscow said that the new domestic fast-food chain will have no problems replacing 250 McDonald’s restaurants in the Russian capital within a year.

I mean, how hard could it be to change the signs?

You could even hire back the same employees too, I’m sure they’ll ease back into the jobs like they were slipping on some old, worn-in boots.

The Mayor also stated that 99% of the ingredients that Uncle Vanya uses will be locally produced, and suited to Russian taste buds, which would make it more palatable than the United States version.

The only issue with that statement is that when McDonald’s was operating in Russia, it also worked with hundreds of local Russian suppliers and partners to produce the food on the menu.

So, what’s the difference here?

It’s basically the same thing, innit?

Regardless, the Moscow City Council has reportedly awarded 500 million rubles (S$6.6 million) to domestic food chains.

McDonald’s Return: To Be Decided

According to McDonald’s President and CEO Chris Kempczinki, it’s impossible for them to know when the company will re-open in Russia.

When McDonald’s announced that it was pulling out on Tuesday in an open letter to its employees, it had willingly parted with nearly a tenth of its revenue because its values dictated that they could not “ignore the needless human suffering unfolding in Ukraine”.

Therefore, even if the conflict in Ukraine were to end soon, there is still a long path of negotiations and reparations, cooling of hostilities, lifting of sanctions, and re-establishing of diplomatic ties, before any sort of re-opening is feasible.

Now that Uncle Vanya is here to intrude, a double question mark needs to be placed on the possibility of McDonald’s re-opening its doors in Russia when its pre-existing outlets would have already been overtaken by a domestic brand by then.

Oh well, what can you do when there’s a blatant imposter walking around. 

You can’t even call it out for being “sus” or a “dud” because it’s Russian government approved. 

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Charleen Teh
Email: [email protected]