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Russia’s Omsk governor excludes McDonald’s from investments list

Viktor Nazarov says McDonald’s is just an ordinary fast food company, so there is no point in providing it with any favorable and beneficial conditions

© ITAR-TASS/Mikhail Metsel

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OMSK, May 05. /ITAR-TASS/. The governor of Russia’s Omsk region, Viktor Nazarov, has excluded the American fast food chain McDonald’s from the list of the region’s major investment projects, the regional administration told ITAR-TASS on Monday as there were 38 projects left on the list instead of 42.

Nazarov has had plans for reconsidering the local government-supported financial projects long ago. McDonald’s used to be one of them, for it was earlier supported by certain high officials.

“As a patriot of my country, I am against spreading McDonald’s products in the Omsk region. We are not going to lease this American network any working space”, Nazarov said, stressing that McDonald’s is just an ordinary fast food company, so there is no point in providing it with any favorable and beneficial conditions.

Earlier, at the turn of 2013 and 2014 the local authorities promised the fast food network an opportunity to choose out of ten trading facilities, located mostly in the center of Omsk. However, the situation has drastically changed, as the governor of the 1.2-million city said McDonald’s would be given no preferences any more.

“May they develop the network on their own. It is now their responsibility to find an appropriate working space and sign leasing contracts. We have changed the format of our relations with them”, Nazarov added.

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