McDonald’s opened its first restaurant in the Soviet Union in 1990.
The restaurant opened in Moscow on January 31, 1990, and became a major symbol of changing relations between the Soviet Union and the West. McDonald’s had spent years preparing for the launch, including developing local supply chains so the restaurant could meet its quality standards.
The Moscow opening attracted enormous public interest, with long queues forming outside. It was operated through a joint venture between McDonald’s Canada and the Moscow city council, rather than through a conventional private franchise arrangement.
The opening is sometimes confused with McDonald’s first restaurant in Russia. The Soviet Union still existed in 1990; the Russian Federation became independent after the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. McDonald’s later expanded widely across Russia before suspending operations there in 2022.