In 1990, McDonald's was the sharp end of the spear in helping open the economy of Soviet Russia to the Western world.
The opening of its first restaurant in Moscow's Pushkin Square generated worldwide publicity as the launch of "capitalism diplomacy." What was then the world's biggest McDonald's served a record 30,000 meals in a day.
Today, three decades later, McDonald's is again looking like an outlier. Its 847 restaurants in Russia, of which 84% are company-owned, are apparently still operating. All of the 108 McDonald's locations in Ukraine are also company-owned.
