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Consumer watchdog closes four Moscow branches following inspections, in move seen by critics as part of sanctions war
Wednesday 20 August
Russia has shut down four McDonald's restaurants in Moscow for alleged sanitary violations in a move critics said was the latest blow in its tit-for-tat sanctions tussle with the west.
The federal monitoring service for consumer rights and wellbeing announced on Wednesday that the offending outlets included the famous restaurant on Pushkin Square that opened just before the fall of the Soviet Union. The body said the eateries were being shut down for "sanitary violations" discovered during inspections this week.
The agency has a history of banning food from countries out of favour with Moscow, and the move will almost certainly be taken as a political statement in the sanctions war. It has previously banned wine from Georgia and dairy products from Belarus after those two countries began to improve relations with the west. This summer, it has banned canned vegetables, fruit, fish, juice and certain beer and vodka from Ukraine.
Earlier in August, President Putin ordered an embargo on meat, poultry, fish, dairy and produce from the United States, Canada, Australia, Norway and the European Union in response to those countries' economic sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine crisis.
Employees at the Pushkin Square restaurant and another McDonald's directly outside the Kremlin walls said on Wednesday evening they were temporarily closed but refused to provide any more information. In a statement, McDonald's said it was studying the watchdog's complaints to "determine the actions necessary to open our restaurants to customers as soon as possible".
The consumer watchdog said inspections would continue in other McDonald's restaurants. The chain has 430 restaurants in 70 Russian cities and employs more than 35,000 people there.
Russia closes McDonald's restaurants for 'sanitary violations' | World news | The Guardian
Wednesday 20 August
Russia has shut down four McDonald's restaurants in Moscow for alleged sanitary violations in a move critics said was the latest blow in its tit-for-tat sanctions tussle with the west.
The federal monitoring service for consumer rights and wellbeing announced on Wednesday that the offending outlets included the famous restaurant on Pushkin Square that opened just before the fall of the Soviet Union. The body said the eateries were being shut down for "sanitary violations" discovered during inspections this week.
The agency has a history of banning food from countries out of favour with Moscow, and the move will almost certainly be taken as a political statement in the sanctions war. It has previously banned wine from Georgia and dairy products from Belarus after those two countries began to improve relations with the west. This summer, it has banned canned vegetables, fruit, fish, juice and certain beer and vodka from Ukraine.
Earlier in August, President Putin ordered an embargo on meat, poultry, fish, dairy and produce from the United States, Canada, Australia, Norway and the European Union in response to those countries' economic sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine crisis.
Employees at the Pushkin Square restaurant and another McDonald's directly outside the Kremlin walls said on Wednesday evening they were temporarily closed but refused to provide any more information. In a statement, McDonald's said it was studying the watchdog's complaints to "determine the actions necessary to open our restaurants to customers as soon as possible".
The consumer watchdog said inspections would continue in other McDonald's restaurants. The chain has 430 restaurants in 70 Russian cities and employs more than 35,000 people there.
Russia closes McDonald's restaurants for 'sanitary violations' | World news | The Guardian
