No McDonald's in Russia Since 2022 2026
McDonald’s left Russia permanently in May 2022; its restaurants now trade as Vkusno i tochka, so there is no Big Mac price to publish for 2026.
Why Russia has no Big Mac price
McDonald’s operated in Russia from 31 January 1990, when a single store opened on Moscow’s Pushkin Square to queues of tens of thousands, until 16 May 2022, when the company announced a permanent exit following the invasion of Ukraine. At the time of exit it ran roughly 850 restaurants across the country.
The estate was sold to a local licensee, Alexander Govor, and reopened in June 2022 under the name Vkusno i tochka — “Tasty and that’s it”. The buildings, the layouts and much of the menu carried over; the arches and the Big Mac did not. The Economist’s Big Mac Index has not carried a Russia line since 2021.
The closest thing on the successor menu is the Big Hit: two patties, a special sauce, a sesame bun. It is a copy of the product, not the product — no franchise fee, no McDonald’s supply chain, no global brand premium — so we file it as shadow data rather than a Big Mac price, and it is not comparable with the Economist rows sitting next to it on the same map.
That distinction matters for anyone modelling Russian purchasing power. Ignoring the successor chain throws away real information: it sells an almost identical product to the same price-sensitive urban consumer, and its menu prices track ruble inflation more cleanly than headline CPI does in some quarters. Publishing it as a Big Mac price, though, would quietly break comparability with the countries the Economist actually surveys.
So this page shows no price and no percentage. Russia is a post-exit grey cell on the index, with the full story linked below.
Read the full story
This page is the short version. The full write-up goes through the timeline, the sources and the numbers that do exist.
Why there's no McDonald's in Russia — full articleStatus at a glance
| McDonald's restaurants | None |
|---|---|
| Status | Exited May 2022 after 32 years — roughly 850 restaurants handed over |
| Successor brand | Vkusno i tochka |
| Closest local equivalent | Vkusno i tochka Big Hit · ₽200 RUB (~$2.55) — not a McDonald's product, and not a Big Mac Index data point |
| Big Mac Index coverage | Not tracked — there is no Big Mac to price |
| Region | Europe |
| Sources | Wikipedia — Vkusno i tochka successor brand |
Frequently asked questions
Is there a McDonald’s in Russia?
No. McDonald’s announced its permanent exit from Russia on 16 May 2022 and sold its roughly 850 restaurants to a local licensee. There is no McDonald’s operating in Russia in 2026.
What replaced McDonald’s in Russia?
The restaurants reopened in June 2022 as Vkusno i tochka (“Tasty and that’s it”), owned by Alexander Govor. The buildings and much of the menu carried over, but the brand, the franchise agreement and the Big Mac did not.
When did the Big Mac Index stop tracking Russia?
The Economist’s published index has not carried a Russia line since 2021 — the last survey before the 2022 exit removed the product it was measuring.
Why isn't Russia in the Big Mac Index?
The Big Mac Index compares the price of one identical product across countries. Russia has no McDonald's restaurant, so there is no Big Mac to price and The Economist publishes no row for it. We list Russia with an editorial note explaining the absence instead of a number — see our methodology.
Dig deeper
- See all 76 countries on the interactive map
- Full 2026 country-by-country breakdown
- Limits of the Big Mac Index
- How I get this data (methodology)
- Know something this page gets wrong, or has a McDonald's opened since? Email me — corrections are credited inline.