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A chance to win trust again: McDonald’s bids to feed major Russian sports event

The World Aquatics Championships is to take place in Kazan between July 24 and August 9, 2015, organizers say 2,400 athletes from 190 countries are to participate in the event

KAZAN, December 24. /TASS/. US most popular brand McDonald's, which has been recently struggling to regain Russian customers’ trust, could win a contract to supply fast food for participants of the 2015 World Aquatics Championships in Russia’s Kazan.

The head of a department of Russia's food safety watchdog in Tatarstan, Marina Patyashina, told TASS the US food chain has already supplied food to athletes at the 2013 Universiade in Kazan.

“They are able enough to work at the World Championship, we have no complaints about their activity,” she said, adding that the facilities for supplying food to the participants are expected to be announced in the first quarter of 2015.

Russia’s Kazan is due to host the World Aquatics Championships between July 24 and August 9, 2015. Organizers say 2,400 athletes from 190 countries are to participate in the event.

In December, McDonald’s said its same-store sales in Russia were “very weak” in November, as a number of the fast-food chain’s outlets were closed this past summer after unscheduled checks by Russia's food safety watchdog.

Russia's food safety watchdog launched a wave of checks of nearly 200 McDonald's branches across the country in August. Several outlets were shut down in locations extending from Moscow to the Ural Mountains and from St. Petersburg to southern Stavropol region.