World News for Students of English

30-05-2022 07:00

McDonald’s first restaurant in Russia opened in the Middle of Moscow more than three decades ago, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

It was a powerful symbol of easing Cold War tensions between the US and Soviet Union, which collapsed in 1991.

Last week, the McDonald’s symbol, a logo in the form of two golden arches, was taken down at a restaurant near Moscow after the multinational burger chain sold its stores, and said that it would leave Russia. The company temporarily closed hundreds of locations in March, after Russia invaded Ukraine in February. The decision has cost McDonald’s about $55 million per month, and the company decided to sell all its sites to a local buyer. The company said that one of its priorities was to ensure that its 62,000 employees in Russia would get paid until the sale was completed and they had future employment with any potential buyer.

Alexander Gavor, and existing McDonald’s licensee, operates 25 restaurants in Siberia, and he has bought McDonald’s 850 Russian restaurants. He agreed to operate them under a new name.

Difficult words: temporarily (for a limited period of time), potential (possible), licensee (a person or organization that has official permission to do or own something).

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