McDonald’s, Starbucks, Coca Cola and other companies are closing their business with Russia following the invention by the Russian troops on Ukraine. Pepsico also is backing out of the country excluding some deletion sales for the sake of their citizens.

As the situation started to fall and Russia clearly declared an invasion from them of Ukraine, many countries around the world criticized their decision. With an attempt to terminate their invasion, many countries started imposing financial sanctions on Russia. Critics, supported by netizens, took social media to use boycott hashtags targeting the major companies functional in Russia. McDonald’s, PepsiCo and other companies were also reached by the New York State Comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli. Those companies were emailed urging them to immediately stop business with Russia. 

DiNapoli said in a statement- “Companies like McDonald’s and PepsiCo which have a large footprint in Russia, need to consider whether doing business in Russia is worth the risk during this extraordinarily volatile time.” McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempezinski stated that- “McDonald’s has decided to temporarily close all our restaurants in Russia and pause all operations in the market.” Exit of the McDonald’s was followed by the other food chains like Starbucks, Coke, PepsiCo, Danone, Unilever and others to leave Russia. There were 847 outlets of McDonald’s at different locations in Russia, according to an investor documentary. 

According to experts, these steps may reduce the western influence on Russian culture and this may give Putin an extra opportunity to shape Russian culture in his own way, once the war ends.