Many Russians to lose jobs if Coca Cola, McDonald’s quit-Kudrin

MOSCOW, Mar 6 (PRIME) -- McDonald’s and Coca Cola purchase up to 85% of food for their products in Russia and employ several tens of thousands people, who will lose their jobs, if the companies leave the country, former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Friday in his Twitter blog.

McDonald’s and Coca Cola have frequently been targeted by deputies of the State Duma, Russian parliament’s lower chamber. The last time took place this week when Alexei Pushkov, chairman of the committee of the State Duma for foreign affairs, asked the two companies to support U.S. sanctions against Russia, and leave the country.

“More than 160 Russian companies supply 85% of raw materials to McDonald’s… Coca Cola purchases more than 75% of raw materials in Russia,” Kudrin said, and if they quit Russia, it will leave “tens of thousands of Russians jobless.”

Last August, Russia’s consumer rights protection watchdog checked McDonald’s restaurants across the country and suspended operations of some of them, including the first Russian restaurant, in Moscow’s Pushkinskaya Square, in the wake of U.S. sanctions against Russia. The fast food chain then reopened all the outlets.

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