MOSCOW (AFP) - The chief of Russia's economy said on Wednesday he was ready to beg McDonald's to open its first fast food store in the Pacific port city of Vladivostok ahead of an upcoming regional summit there.
'We do not have a McDonald's in Vladivostok and I would like to have one there,' the online edition of Vedomosti quoted First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, the government's pointman for the economy, as saying.
'I am ready to use every means at my disposal to convince McDonald's to open a store in Vladivostok,' he was quoted as telling the United States giant's Russia Vice-President Viktor Eidemiller at a forum in the city of Kazan.
Russia's main city on the Pacific has been the recipient of a US$20 billion (S$25 billion) facelift programme designed to get the dilapidated tsarist-era port in shape to for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in September.
Citation: http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/World/Story/STIStory_772048.html
I was surprised that Vladivostok, well-known city in Eastern Russia has no McDonald's. Though I am not sure it, it may be a result of Russian history that Russia was governed by the communist party for a long time. Especially because McDonald's is likely to be treated as a symbol of the First World's capitalism, we can conclude that communists prevented Vladivostok from introducing McDonald's.
