Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, this was the case until now but the point of the article is that they're selling all assets and letting everyone go. They promised to help them get employed by another company, but themselves they are pretty much quitting the country. It's a big move for McD, they are probably the only foreign chain that actually owns most of its restaurants rather than just franchising them out.
I know there was a Russian restaurant franchise that had started buying, or least committed to buy, a bunch of locations of different Western chains.
Edit: I did hear some McD locations got 're-branded'. I'm not sure whether those were the franchised restaurants that turned or someone actually expropriated McDonalds' assets.