MCDONALD’S, COKE, PEPSI AND STARBUCKS ALL HALT SALES IN RUSSIA

Wed 09 March 2022:

McDonald’s, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola and Starbucks stopped sales of their best-known products in Russia on Tuesday, offering a united rebuke of the war on Ukraine by companies that define America for much of the world.

Pepsi and McDonald’s were corporate pioneers whose work with the Soviet Union and the post-Soviet Russian state decades ago were seen as improving international relations.

All four companies have major operations in Russia.

McDonald’s said it would go on paying salaries to its 62,000 employees in Russia as it closed 847 restaurants. The first location to open in Russia, in central Moscow’s Pushkin Square in 1990, became a symbol of flourishing American capitalism as the Soviet Union fell.

“I’m glad they came around and made the right decision,” Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor at the Yale School of Management who is tracking major companies’ stances on Russia, said after the move by McDonald’s. “It’s a really important impact, and it’s symbolic as much as it is substantive.”

Starbucks Corp SBUX.O is temporarily closing hundreds of stores. PepsiCo Inc PEP.O will suspend all advertising in Russia and stop the sale of its drinks brands, while continuing to sell essentials such as milk and baby food. Rival Coca-Cola Co KO.N said it will suspend its business there.

Coca-Cola was the official drink of the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, despite the United States boycotting the event in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

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