As Western companies exit the Russian market, some very familiar-looking brands are replacing them.
Déjà Food: Russia's Replica Restaurant Brands
A woman enjoys a slice in a rebranded Domino's Pizza outlet in Moscow that was reopened on August 30 as "Domиno Pizza," with the Latin "i" in the name replaced with the equivalent Cyrillic letter "и."
A worker boxes pies in a rebranded Domino's Pizza outlet in Moscow on August 30.
In late August, Domino's became the latest major Western brand to exit the Russian market after failing to sell the business. Domino's was the third-largest pizza-delivery chain in the country, with 142 stores.
Russian restauranteur Anton Pinsky (left) and pro-Kremlin rapper Timati took over the assets of Domino's Pizza following the brand's exit from the country.
It is not the first Russian outlet of a multinational company to be "rebranded" by the pair.
This is a branch of Stars Coffee on Moscow’s central Arbat Street. The Starbucks-like cafe chain opened on August 18, 2022.
The Stars Coffee store on Arbat Street opened inside a former Starbucks outlet. In May 2022, Starbucks joined scores of other major Western brands in pulling out of Russia amid the country's invasion of Ukraine.
Stars Coffee was launched by Pinsky and Timati, who wrote in a 2015 track that “President Putin is my best friend.” The pair announced that scores of empty former Starbucks cafes would be reopened under their Stars Coffee brand. Starbucks had 130 branches in Russia and nearly 2,000 employees.
Pinsky claimed to journalists at the Stars Coffee opening in Moscow that "people's perceptions may be different, but if you compare, then you won't find anything in common [with the Starbucks logo] apart from the circle."
A branch of Tasty And That’s It in a former McDonald’s restaurant in Kazan in August 2022.
In May 2022, McDonald’s announced that it would pull out of Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine. The following month, hundreds of former McDonald’s restaurants restarted their grills under Russian ownership as “Vkusno i Tochka” (Tasty and That’s It).
Tasty And That’s It staff construct burgers inside a former McDonald’s in Moscow in June 2022.
The renamed fast-food chain got off to a shaky start, with one report of moldy bread being used in a burger in June, but the restaurants appear to be popular.
The cafe section of a Tasty And That’s It outlet in Kazan
A recent video reviewer concluded that the burgers tasted identical to McDonald’s, and noted that sauce packets were McDonald’s condiments with the logo obscured with pen ink.
Coca-Cola stopped production and sales in Russia in August 2022, leading to a flurry of similar drinks being produced domestically to fill the gap in the local market. This photo shows Russian-made Cool Cola, Street, and Fancy drinks on sale at a grocery store in Moscow.