As American fast-Food chains disengage from the Russian market, Russian business people are apparently developing their own indigenous McDonaldâs ripoff.
âUncle Vanya,â as the Russian restaurantâs name goes, features a logo similar to McDonaldâs, a copy of the logo attached to a trademark filing the chainâs proprietors submitted to the Russian government March 12 shows, according to Business Insider.
The color scheme appears very similar, if not precisely the same, as McDonaldâs red and yellow. The logo features the letter âĐâ from the Cyrillic alphabet, which has a similar pronunciation as âVâ in English. Below that is the name âUncle Vanyaâ spelled out in Cyrillic.
According to the New York Post, the âapplication appeared online after Russian officials indicated they remove patent protections for companies linked to countries deemed hostile to Russia â a response to crippling international sanctions and a mass exodus of Western companies in response to the Ukraine invasion.â
So, in a world where China has established a global, unsavory reputation for violating protections for intellectual property (a reputation the Trump administration tried to do something about), Russia is making a new name for itself as well â and the âUncle Vanyaâsâ logo is a case in point.
When one observes the curves of the âBâ logotype, the ripoff is clear. The arches of the letter as they appear in the logotype resemble McDonaldâs if one would flip McDonaldâs arches 90 degrees to the right and seal the open space under the curves with a bar.
McDonaldâs announced in a March 8 Twitter post that it will be âtemporarily closing all restaurants and pausing all operations in Russia.â
Company CEO Chris Kempczinski in a news release said the restaurant chain was doing so to âjoin the world in condemning aggression and violenceâ by Russia, which has created a major humanitarian crisis in Ukraine through its invasion of the country.
McDonaldâs wasnât the only major fast-Food chain to suspend operations in Russia, though it was the first, according to Business Insider.
Other brands that followed McDonaldâs lead included Starbucks, Papa Johnâs, KFC, and Burger King, according to Business Insider.
As soon as the closure was announced, many Russians rushed to their nearest McDonaldâs to grab their favorite meals before they disappeared.
One Russian fan of McDonaldâs chained himself to a Moscow franchise location to protest its closure, the Business Insider reported.
âThey donât have the right to close down,â said Luka Safronov-Zatravkin, a Russian pianist, according to the outlet while chained.
He was reportedly chained to a McDonaldâs in Moscowâs Pushkin Square.
Safronov-Zatravkin, according to the outlet, shouted that McDonaldâs âclosing down is an act of hostility against me and my fellow citizens.â
A social media user posted a picture of a refrigerator in Russia stuffed with hoarded McDonaldâs sandwiches, the New York Post reported.
Following news of McDonaldâs temporary closures, the speaker of Russiaâs State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin said Russian restaurants must take over McDonaldâs sites, The Washington Post reported
âThey announced they are closing. Well, OK, close. But tomorrow in those locations we should have not McDonaldâs, but Uncle Vanyaâs,â Volodin said, according to the outlet.
âJobs must be preserved and prices reduced.â
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
