Consumer-safety regulators are now conducting over 200 investigations into alleged hygiene and financial violations at McDonald's restaurants in Russia. Currently McDonald's has around 450 restaurants in the country.
Kathrin Hille at the Financial Times writes,
Russia has broadened its crackdown on McDonald’s to more than 200 separate investigations, in a campaign that makes the US fast food group one of the biggest casualties of Moscow’s festering stand-off with the west over Ukraine. The latest salvo subjects almost half of McDonald’s outlets in Russia to probes over hygiene or finance. (Russia bites back with widening crackdown on McDonald’s – FT.com)
Bloomberg reports that the original McDonald's restaurant in Moscow’s Pushkin square is currently shut down under court order. Eight other restaurants are also temporarily closed.
McDonald's disagrees with the decisions to shut down stores and plans to appeal.
While probes into financial matters and hygenic matters are not unusual, this number is extreme. “It is the typical approach you see when [countries] are determined to bring a business to its knees,” according to food industry executive in Russia.
This witch-hunt started when the U.S. and European Union imposed sanctions against Russian companies and Russian officials following Putin's annexation of Crimea. In response to these sanctions, Putin banned $9.5 billion in food imports from Western countries. Unfortunately for McDonald's, it's right in the middle of this tit-for-tat exchange of hostilities.
Sources:
McDonald’s Says Russia Inspecting More Than 200 Outlets (Bloomberg)
Russia bites back with widening crackdown on McDonald’s (FT.com)
Picture by girlwparasol at Flickr.
