Vkusno i Tochka (“Tasty and That’s It”), the Russian successor chain to McDonald’s, has opened its first 15 branches in Moscow after the American fast-food giant abandoned the country in protest against Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
McDonald’s departure, part of a mass commercial exodus from Russia in response to its attack on its neighbour on 24 February, was particularly symbolic given that the opening of its first restaurant in Moscow’s Pushkin Square on 31 January 1990 marked the dawning of western consumer-capitalism in the former heart of the Soviet Union.
