Russia correspondent Geert Groot Kurkamp:
“McDonald’s is a company that has a very important symbolic function. The opening of the first restaurant in Russia, then the Soviet Union in 1990, was a huge event. It was then the largest establishment in the world. That was a sign that things were really changing in the Soviet Union.
It was the introduction to a piece of the West, the Iron Curtain was still there. People were not aware of restaurants like this, and Russians were willing to queue for more than an hour at times. The McDonald’s also acted as a magnet for Russian youngsters, who sat there for hours.”
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