I don't really follow the news on Russia and the Ukraine conflict or the politics surrounding the entire ordeal because I don't believe that we are going to be told the truth about what is really going on. I have been taught through years of formulaic lies that the media can't be trusted with anything that matters and they they will intentionally mislead the public because of reasons that don't really make sense in the end.
Therefore, I don't know what to believe as far as Russia and Ukraine is concerned. I know we are all supposed to hate Russia and what not but if we aren't getting the full story, this could all be based on lies for all we know. I'm not saying that Russia isn't doing anything bad, war is in it's very nature, bad. I'm not trying to downplay the seriousness of what is going on over there either. I'm just saying I am not going to take a politician or news station's word on it.
I also don't think it is at all fair or moral to punish a population for the actions of their government and this is what a lot of countries and companies have been doing to Russia. I found it kind of funny that the one that made the news the most was the closure of McDonalds of all things..
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People tend to forget that it wasn't really that long ago that Russia was USSR and companies like McDonalds were not allowed to open in the Republic. Once they were allowed in the 1990, hundreds of people lined up to get the famous burger and just like almost everywhere else in the world, it remained popular ever since. McDonalds as a company decided to boycott Russia just like almost anyone else and this angered some of the people and it kind of angered me. With the culture of today though, especially in the United States, I think they didn't really have a choice but to close their stores in Russia even though they were making money for the company.
They sold them at a market-value loss too which suggests that perhaps McDonalds was not as pleased to make this hasty exit as they might have hoped. I believe they probably didn't want to do it at all but political and societal pressure made is something that they had to do. I'm sure that the Kremlin was going to immediately stop attacking Ukraine once they heard that they were no longer going to have access to Big Macs.
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I don't even remember how long ago it was that this happened but guess what? Russia has rebranded the McDonalds and reopened them. The new owners are using the McDonald's equipment to make burger, fries, fish sandwiches and what not, but are not infringing on any copywrite laws at all.
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It's called Vkusno i Tochka which means "Tasty, and that's it!" and has a very similar menu to McDonands but one benefit that people have noticed is that the food is even cheaper. This may have something to do with the absence of franchising fees since this is a brand new restaurant.
People have said that it basically taste the same as McDonalds with a few people complaining about the absence of things like the McFlurry. You mean to tell me that their ice cream machines actually worked over there in Russia? That's a first.
I guess this is a big win for Russia because they are showing that they don't actually need western help in order to do something like this and for the companies that left quickly like McDonalds did, they were selling their gear at a massive discount. It's just burgers right? I thought it was really silly for them ever leave in the first place because they did so because of things like Twitter pressure. I don't know why McD's even cares about this because they are relatively cancel-culture. They are perpetually vilified for the poor work-environments, wages, health-problems created in part by consuming their food, and the fact that they sponsor events with less-than-wonderful human-rights track records such as the Qatar World Cup.
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The reason why this is dumb news is because of how quickly the Russians were able to totally rebrand McDonalds and reopen all 850 stores. They have plans not just to keep these stores open but to actually expand to 150 additional locations by the end of the year. Thus far it has been wildly popular. I wonder if the people will hold a grudge against the McD's for leaving them in the first place should they try to return. I don't really care. I'm just happy that normal guys can get a burger if they want to.
