McDonald's opened its first restaurant in Moscow in 1990, bringing its Golden Arches brand to the Soviet Union.
The opening was a major international branding event because McDonald's had become a widely recognized symbol of American-style fast food. The Moscow restaurant attracted enormous public attention and long queues, making the launch more than an ordinary store opening.
McDonald's had worked for years to prepare the restaurant, including developing local supply arrangements and training staff. That groundwork mattered because the company wanted the customer experience and food standards to match its established brand identity.
The 1990 opening is sometimes confused with later Russian expansion or with the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. The first Moscow restaurant opened before that political change.