It was a major event when McDonald's opened its first Russian branch on Pushkin Square in Moscow in 1990.

More than 30,000 people came on the first day.

The then Soviet Union was nearing collapse, and the launch of McDonald's was a symbol of greater opening to the West.

Over the years, Russia has become a very important market for Americans.

You have almost 850 branches here, and the country accounts for nine percent of the group's sales.

Roland Lindner

Business correspondent in New York.

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However, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the clock has now turned back more than 30 years.

On Tuesday, McDonald's announced that it would temporarily close all Russian restaurants.

"We cannot ignore the needless human suffering in Ukraine," CEO Chris Kempczinski said in a message to employees.

And shortly after this announcement, one of the few American brands followed that can still compete with McDonald's in terms of fame: the beverage company Coca-Cola also announced that it was suspending its business in Russia.

Boycott calls in the past few days

Several other prominent American companies also initiated their withdrawal on Tuesday: Starbucks announced that it would cease "all business activities", Pepsico said it would no longer sell Pepsi-Cola and other global brands in Russia.

All of these companies decided relatively late to temporarily leave Russia.

Electronics giant Apple announced last week that it would stop selling its products in Russia, oil giant Exxon-Mobil said it would abandon a major project on the Russian island of Sakhalin and stop investing in the country in the future, and aircraft manufacturer Boeing doesn't want any Supply spare parts to Russian airlines more.

The more such announcements piled up, the more attention was turned to those companies that had not yet decided to pull out, and these included many hospitality chains and food and beverage manufacturers.

Calls for a boycott against companies such as McDonald's, Coca-Cola and Starbucks have increased in recent days.

For some branches in particular, the decision was a bit more complex because their premises are run by franchisees and not by themselves. This applies to the 130 Starbucks branches, for example.

Starbucks has now announced that the local license partner has agreed to temporarily stop operating all branches.

The company wants to stop deliveries of its products to Russia.

McDonald's, on the other hand, operates 84 percent and thus the vast majority of its Russian branches itself. This is also one of the reasons why they contribute such a high proportion of sales.

McDonald's has 108 branches in Ukraine, all of which are self-operated.

Coca-Cola and Pepsico have taken slightly different approaches to their exit.

Coca-Cola spoke of giving up the whole business, Pepsico limited the move to its global brands.

The company said it felt responsible for continuing to offer other everyday products such as milk and baby food.

This will also help support the livelihoods of the 20,000 workers in the country.

According to McDonald's, it has 62,000 employees in Russia.

They should all continue to be paid.