MOSCOW, September 04. /ITAR-TASS/. US fast-food giant McDonald's said on Thursday it would close its second restaurant in Yekaterinburg, Urals’ region.

Earlier, Russia’s consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor suspended the work of seven McDonald’s restaurants across Russia.

McDonald’s plans to modernize five restaurants in St. Petersburg, two in Moscow, two in the wider Moscow region, two in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg and seven more across the country.

Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said Russian authorities were not planning to close down McDonald's chain nationwide.

“No-one is talking about it at all [a ban on McDonald's in Russia],” Dvorkovich said after inspectors took to the road. But some businessmen in Russia said checks had been driven by souring relations between Russia and the West over events in Ukraine.

Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets said there was no “total plan” to inspect all the chain's outlets in Russia. She claimed activities were being carried out “in accordance with the general plan, and based on some cases of violations of sanitary-epidemiological legislation”.

Outlets closed as Russia introduced a year-long embargo on meat, fish, dairy, fruit and vegetables from the United States, the European Union, Canada, Australia and Norway in retaliation for economic sanctions imposed by those nations on Russia.

McDonald's operates 435 restaurants in 85 Russian cities and rates the country one of its top seven markets outside the United States and Canada, according to its 2013 annual report. The company employs nearly 37,000 people in Russia, serving more than one million customers a day.