Mcdonalds in Russia shuts down operation

McDonald’s has decided to temporarily close all our restaurants in Russia and pause all operations in the market,” the fast food giant announced.

While lamenting the impact on 62,000 people employed at 850 restaurants in Russia, the company said, “we cannot ignore the needless human suffering unfolding in Ukraine.”

New York state’s pension fund chief Thomas DiNapoli had sent letters to companies operating in the country saying they “need to consider whether doing business in Russia is worth the risk during this extraordinarily volatile time.”

The messages went to McDonald’s, as well as Pepsi, snack manufacturer Mondelez, cosmetics groups Estee Lauder and Coty, and brokerage firm Bunge,

A team from Yale University that keeps a list of companies with a significant presence in Russia said about 250 have announced withdrawal from the country since it invaded neighboring Ukraine, reminiscent of “the large-scale corporate boycott of Apartheid South Africa in the 1980s.”

McDonald’s is an American multinational fast food corporation, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hamburger stand, and later turned the company into a franchise, with the Golden Arches logo being introduced in 1953 at a location in Phoenix, Arizona.