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McDonald’s to Exit from Russia

corporate.mcdonalds.com

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Re: McDonald’s to Exit from Russia

#191

Post by adolph »

roenxi wrote: post #141
jcranmer wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russia is party to several international treaties that allow it to be sued outside of Russian courts if it doesn't uphold intellectual property law, and if those suits do not go Russia's way, then it is now possible that Russian assets can be seized as compensation. Or, to oversimplify it, if Russia decides that anyone can use McDonald's trademark, then maybe Gazprom's pipelines won't be Russian anymore.

Hasn't the US already been seizing stuff somewhat randomly? I don't think there is a case that Russian yachts are contributing to the war effort, but there seems to be a push on to make off with them.

The claim is the Russian rich folk commit criminal acts. The method is civil forfeiture. The outcome is nothing need be proven, the assertion is sufficient.

“We are already working with our international partners to freeze and seize properties belonging to sanctioned Russian oligarchs worldwide,” said Attorney General Garland. “We will continue to work together to take all appropriate actions against those whose criminal acts enable the Russian government to continue its unjust war against Ukraine.”

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-departments-justice-and-tr...

Reward program: https://home.treasury.gov/about/offices/terrorism-and-financ...

Re: McDonald’s to Exit from Russia

#192

Post by thriftwy »

ushakov wrote: post #76
jmnicolas wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No country NEEDS McDonald's.

the difference is that for 30 years since McDonalds is in Russia, nobody said “We don’t need McDonalds” they only left after the “special operation” started, but the propaganda will try to shift the blame and tell “whatever, we don’t need McDonalds anyways” next thing you know: “we dont’t need bread, we don’t need bananas, we don’t need water, German cars are for fashists”, etc.

The EU is "don't need"ing Russian oil and gas for some time already. So?

Re: McDonald’s to Exit from Russia

#193

Post by FunnyBadger »

GekkePrutser wrote: post #13

> The Company intends to initiate the process of “de-Arching” those restaurants, which entails no longer using the McDonald’s name, logo, branding, and menu, though the Company will continue to retain its trademarks in Russia. Obviously they'd want to keep the trademark, otherwise they have no way to prevent those sold restaurants from "re-Arching" after the "de-Arching" :)

Go to Taiwan to see how ostracism from the WTO order turns out: hint, Disney et al. copyrights and trademarks are universally used without fear or concern by just about everyone. What can the IP "owners" say: "We're going to sic the WTO on you!"?? The trivial answer: "We applied to the WTO and for political and diplomatic expediency they won't have us so we are not governed by the WTO"

The same will happen with Russia and western IP.

Re: McDonald’s to Exit from Russia

#194

Post by jcranmer »

thriftwy wrote: post #180
jcranmer wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Iraq was not a NATO operation, hence the term "coalition of the willing."

This is laughable on the same level as Putin when he denied that Russian troops are in Crimea. "These are just some people who bought their uniforms in the military store" "That was not a NATO operation but an operation carried out by NATO countries" Meanwhile for the whole world, NATO has waged war in Iraq. Yugoslavia before that. Lybia after that.

I find it funny that you managed to omit the only time NATO ever initiated an invasion in response to Article 5 from that list (Afghanistan).

Re: McDonald’s to Exit from Russia

#195

Post by KptMarchewa »

boole1854 wrote: post #80
jnorthrop wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure who downvoted you. It is a good question. McDonald's and other consumer goods type companies are not sanctioned, so the company can sell its assets. For that matter they could continue to operate as normal in Russia if they choose.

I'm not sure they really could easily continue to operate as normal. Their business units in Russia get paid by consumers in rubles, but due to the financial sanctions, they can no longer convert rubles to US dollars [1]. From the point of view of their non-Russian shareholders, this effectively means all that money is inaccessible. This would result in complications in reporting the revenue on their income statement…

Not sanctions, but Russian regulation. From your link:

>The Bank of Russia more than doubled the benchmark interest rate to 20%, a 19-year high, on Feb. 28 and also imposed capital controls, including a ban on foreigners’ selling of securities. Nabiullina said decisions to suspend some regulatory requirements amounted to a capital boost for banks equivalent to 900 billion rubles ($8.7 billion). Putin banned all Russian residents from transferring foreign currency abroad, hardening capital controls.

Re: McDonald’s to Exit from Russia

#196

Post by roenxi »

adolph wrote: post #191
roenxi wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hasn't the US already been seizing stuff somewhat randomly? I don't think there is a case that Russian yachts are contributing to the war effort, but there seems to be a push on to make off with them.

The claim is the Russian rich folk commit criminal acts. The method is civil forfeiture. The outcome is nothing need be proven, the assertion is sufficient. “We are already working with our international partners to freeze and seize properties belonging to sanctioned Russian oligarchs worldwide,” said Attorney General Garland. “We will continue to work together to take all appropriate actions against those whose crim…

> Russia is party to several international treaties that allow it to be sued outside of Russian courts if it doesn't uphold intellectual property law...

> The outcome is nothing need be proven, the assertion is sufficient...

There seem to be inconsistent messages in this thread. Do we need to prove anything to take stuff off the Russians or don't we?

Re: McDonald’s to Exit from Russia

#197

Post by KptMarchewa »

0898 wrote: post #140

Can anybody explain why the rouble is at a five-year high? Or is there something in the intricacies of currency pairings that means this high isn't quite like other "highs"?

>The Bank of Russia more than doubled the benchmark interest rate to 20%, a 19-year high, on Feb. 28 and also imposed capital controls, including a ban on foreigners’ selling of securities. Nabiullina said decisions to suspend some regulatory requirements amounted to a capital boost for banks equivalent to 900 billion rubles ($8.7 billion). Putin banned all Russian residents from transferring foreign currency abroad, hardening capital controls.

Re: McDonald’s to Exit from Russia

#198

Post by whywhywhywhy »

cbozeman wrote: post #74
chongli wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a globally recognizable brand like McDonald's, the move to leave the country has a symbolic meaning. It sends a message to the Russian people that something is deeply wrong with the direction taken by their government. Of course, some Russians will interpret the move differently, but that cannot be avoided.

I don't think this is the reasoning at all. I think trying to conduct transactions in a heavily sanctioned nation that's also fighting a war of aggression against a neighbor, and incurring heavy losses, is causing a headache for the bean counters, and it has finally become more trouble than it's worth, financially. These enormous multinational behemoths - as an entity - don't give two shits about the people dying in…

Always disgusted me how two faced the vocal companies like Disney and Apple were about LGBTQ+ rights in the US yet all too happy to throw the same community under the bus when Russian, Chinese and UAE profits were on the table.

They're only interested in the community as a PR tool, not the actual lives of the people, it's gross.

Re: McDonald’s to Exit from Russia

#199

Post by jcranmer »

thriftwy wrote: post #189
jcranmer wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it more important to listen to Russia than to listen to Ukraine, Sweden, and Finland? Or also Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia?

Do you think you are capable of listening to those countries? Take Kazakhstan. It's a country which is in several bloc-like agreements with Russia: СНГ, ОДКБ, ЕАЕС. How are you going to listen to it? I will tell you how the West do it every time: You are going to find some opposition crackpot who will badmouth Russia and crap on Kazakhstan regime, and you will ignore all other voices. The one who may as well be on so…

> Do you think you are capable of listening to those countries?

Honestly, no. But that doesn't mean they aren't worth listening to, it just means we need to find someone who is capable of listening to them.

And it's equally worth pointing out that listening to Kazakhstan through a Russian filter is as dangerously misguided as listening to it through a Western filter.

Re: McDonald’s to Exit from Russia

#200

Post by croon »

lnxg33k1 wrote: post #64
eropple wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How is Russia going to not be belligerent if we are even thinking about letting Sweden and Finland in NATO? That's easy: by choosing to not be belligerent to countries exercising their sovereign autonomy. "You're making me hit you!" No.

Ask cubans about exercising sovereignity against the freest world, as said in my main message, we need to give up moral superiority and understand other countries needs

> we need to give up moral superiority and understand other countries needs

> How is Russia going to not be belligerent if we are even thinking about letting Sweden and Finland in NATO?

And this is the argument you are making about what Russia needs. Maybe consider why Sweden and Finland wants to join NATO.

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