UPDATE 3-McDonald’s quits Crimea as fears of trade clash grow | Reuters
▻http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/04/04/ukraine-crisis-mcdonalds-idINL5N0MW18J20140404
“Due to operational reasons beyond our control, McDonald’s has taken the decision to temporarily close our three restaurants in Simferopol, Sevastopol and Yalta,” a spokeswoman said.
The Crimean outlets are not franchises, but owned and operated by McDonald’s itself.
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The company’s decision was welcomed by the deputy speaker of the Russian parliament, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, known for his anti-Western rhetoric, who demanded that McDonald’s pull its business out of Russia entirely.
“It would be good if they closed here too ... if they disappeared for good. Pepsi-Cola would be next,” Russian media quoted Zhirinovsky as saying.
Zhirinovsky, whose nationalist Liberal Democratic party largely backs President Vladimir Putin in parliament, said the party would organise pickets at McDonald’s restaurants across the country.
McDonald’s, which currently operates more than 400 restaurants in Russia, was the first international fast-food chain to tap the Russian market when it opened in Moscow’s Pushkin Square before the collapse of the Soviet Union.