Due to western sanctions, almost all western businesses have pulled out of Russia. Mickey D’s pulled out pretty early on and has been replaced by a workalike—though some claim it’s not a taste-alike—called Вкусно - и Точка (Vkusno i Tochka, translating into English roughly as “tasty - case closed”). We found a Domino’s Pizza last year not too far away that, although it looked like it was just closed temporarily, was never seen in actual operation any of the times when we were in that area. Signage for western financial companies still remains on some buildings here where branches were formerly operating but those locations are now either standing empty or are occupied by some other, native financial entity.
But despite these high-profile withdrawals of western business concerns, some western businesses—even some America-based ones—continue to operate here. In the fast food sphere, Burger King is one of those still in operation. We’ve also seen Subway sub shops still doing business here.
I had actually noticed last year in the food court of the mall we were frequenting because of its close proximity and due to the fact that a large grocery store and building-supply store were located there—a mall called Радуга/Raduga (Rainbow) that I wrote about in some of my entries from last year—that there was a Burger King that appeared to be doing brisk business. In addition to other Burger Kings we’ve seen around the city, we noted that one still in operation this year as well.
I recently had a hankering for some French fries and, although Russian fries would have served the purpose just fine, the wife requested that a relative who would be driving close to our location would stop along the way and pick up an order of fries and drop them off here. To my surprise, when they were delivered, they were fries from Burger King. Although I’ve not ordered anything from BK for decades, the taste of these fries was certainly something I’d expect from an American BK. The packaging was a bit different though, as will be evident in the following photos.
The text on the red packet in the photo above translates as “Spicy thing. Hot seasoning that improves everything.” Below the BK logo, the text on the bag translates as “Hi, this is a ‘shaker’ (the English word is just transliterated using Cyrillic characters). A package in which it is convenient to mix sides with our seasoning. Instructions on the side.”
The pictures make it pretty clear what’s contained in the instructions on the side of the bag, but I will provide a translation anyway. It starts “How does this work? Dump the sides into the shaker. Add, according to taste, the proprietary seasoning. Fold the upper edge and shake well. Ready!”
Since I haven’t been to a BK in America for decades, I have no idea whether the seasoning packet and the shaker bag are peculiarities of Russian Burger Kings. I’m sure certain items found on the BK menu here will be a bit different from those seen in American menus. But exactly how things differ here from those in the U.S. I can’t say at the moment. I did note, while looking at BK’s Russian-language site, that they list on their menu фиш бургер (fish burger). So that and the fries, apart from perhaps the seasoning packet, looks pretty consonant with American equivalents.
As to the question of how BK continues to operate here, despite the sanctions, I did find the information below in the interwebs:
So some reassurances from the company about ceasing operations in Russia had apparently been given. How they manage to remain open despite those reassurances is uncertain, but it clearly makes good business sense for them to remain in operation here. I’m sure a large amount of the traffic formerly directed toward McDonalds in Russia is now being intercepted by BK. And the market is not small, despite prices being quite a bit lower than those in the U.S. For example my fries, which here cost a little under $2.00, would cost in the U.S. closer to $4.00.
My guess is that there is plenty of legal leeway regarding operation of businesses in the legal systems of the two countries that can allow for continuing to conduct business here, and that the BK corporation has successfully maneuvered its way through all that. That said, given the choice, I would probably choose Russian fries over BK fries since the price in most places would undoubtedly be a bit lower and the taste difference unappreciable, at least to me.