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Russian McDonald’s now named 'Vkusno i tochka'

The relaunch will begin on Russia Day, a patriotic holiday celebrating the country’s independence

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Former McDonald’s restaurants in Russia have been renamed “Vkusno i tochka” (“Delicious. Full Stop”), the new owner said on Sunday ahead of their re-opening.

“The new name is Vkusno i tochka,” Oleg Paroyev, the director general of the new group, told a press conference in Moscow. Russian businessman Alexander Govor, who had been a licensee of the chain, bought it after McDonald’s announced in May it would sell its Russian portfolio of 850 restaurants.

Sunday marks a new dawn for Russia’s fast-food lovers as former McDonald’s Corp restaurants reopen under new branding and ownership, more than three decades after the arrival of the hugely popular Western fast food chain.

The relaunch will begin on Russia Day, a patriotic holiday celebrating the country’s independence, at the same flagship location in Moscow’s Pushkin Square where McDonald’s first opened in Russia in January 1990.

In the early 1990s, as the Soviet Union crumbled, McDonald’s came to embody a thawing of Cold War tensions and was a vehicle for millions of Russians to sample American food and culture. The brand’s exit is now a powerful symbol of how Russia and the West are once again turning their backs on each other.

McDonald’s last month said it was selling its restaurants in Russia to one of its local licensees, Alexander Govor. The deal marked one of the most high-profile business departures since Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24.

McDonald’s iconic ‘Golden Arches’ have been taken down at sites in Moscow and St Petersburg, where they will make way for a new logo comprising two fries and a hamburger patty against a green background. The reopening will initially cover 15 locations in Moscow and the surrounding region.

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