Russian businessmen demand Putin to prevent the return of Western companies to the country

The chief executive of the Russian “Burger” chain of restaurants, Oleg Laweif, expressed his concerns to President Vladimir Putin, about the risks facing his work if McDonald’s practiced the former mother company of “Burger”, its right to rebuild.

“If the brand returns, the company’s foreign technology systems will become foreign again, and all the equipment of kitchens will become foreign, and it will become clear that all the huge work that our Russian colleagues and partners have gone to have gone to some extent.”

However, Putin reassured during a televised meeting of the Kremlin, Lafeif, and other executives who shared it with similar concerns, that he had already ordered the government to find a solution to cancel the rebuilding item.

And Putin said: “Remember the famous joke: only the cowards are the ones who pay their debts … The same applies here.”

Pressure

The Kremlin meeting was the appetite for companies such as “Kosno E Toshka”, which acquired Western brand work after the start of the Russian -Ukrainian war in 2022. Fuzeno E Toshka was founded by Alexander Govor, the former McDonald’s concession, who bought the American company’s operations when it left the country.

Shortly before the meeting, Russian lawmakers submitted a draft law that allows local companies to violate the purchase agreements concluded with Western companies after the war, if the price agreed in advance is less than the current value of the original.

According to two people familiar with the matter, the proposed law came as a result of extensive pressure by the company “Vozeno I Toshka”, which has become the pioneer of this new wave of Russian companies.

Businessmen who pressed Putin at the last Kremlin meeting, who are largely unaware of public opinion, belonging to a new emerging class that flourished even at a time when the war hindered the actions of the “oligarchy” in Russia, who were isolated by sanctions on Western origins and markets.

“These are the beneficiaries of the war and the pioneers of replacement of imports who ascended with the tide,” said colleague at the Carnegie Russia Center in Berlin, Alexandra Prokopinko.

transformation

Putin’s adoption of the protective campaign is a shift from what it was just months ago, when he ordered his government to set rules for the return of Western companies, after US President Donald Trump pledged to restore trade relations with Russia.

The rapprochement with the United States remains a distance, as long as the peace process in Ukraine is still in the process of collapse.

Moscow has recognized that no Western company made an official attempt to return.

A former senior Russian official said: “Many have learned how to make a lot of money from all this commercially … and also from the budget, and this is a real motive for maintaining the current situation,” said a former senior Russian official.

He added, “In the retail sectors, restaurants and hospitality, the exit of multinationals was a growth boom for Russian companies that devoured the spoils,” as he described.

Empty space

“There was, literally, an empty space on the shelf, and here came the role of local companies. “If the long queues are in front of the first branch of (McDonald’s) in Moscow in 1990, they symbolize the dawn of Russian capitalism, then the success of (Kosno I Toshka) represents the protectionist and national trend that has distinguished Putin’s economy in wartime.”

The Restaurant of the “Vozeno E Toshka” company was opened on the national day of Russia three years ago, a step that La Corven said that the company took it on the Kremlin’s proposal, offering a menu that includes dishes such as “Big Heet”, which is very similar to “Big Mac” from “McDonald’s”.

The company «Fuzeno E Toshka» now serve two million customers per day, and its revenues increased by 20% on an annual basis to reach 187 billion rubles (2.4 billion dollars) in 2024, compared to 75 billion rubles in 2021, which is the last year before the war.

The company «Chernogolovka», a Russian Food Production Company, has acquired the business of «Kilozz» snacks, and the work of “Heinz” for children’s food in the country. Litdin, growth in sales by 477% during the same period. On the “Financial Times”

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War economy

The prosperity of new Russian companies comes in the wake of an economy that has witnessed a fundamental shift as a result of the war. As Western sanctions, Russia, pushed Russia to reduce its dependence on exports, high salaries – greatly driven by increasing the wages of the military and the war economy – domestic demand and special consumption. “The Russian economy has become less dependent on exports, more dependent on local demand and private consumption, which has positive and negative aspects,” said Vasily Astrov, an expert in Russian affairs at the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies.

• The businessmen who pressed Putin belonging to a new emerging class that flourished even at a time when the war impeded the works of the “oligarchy”.