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Restaurateur Anton Pinskiy and pro-Kremlin rapper Timati, who already bought together the Starbucks business in Russia last year, are now taking over the Russian assets of Domino’s Pizza, after its former owner declared bankruptcy, according to Reuters.
In the midst of this hostile scenario in which all Western companies in Russia have undertaken a collective exodus, selling their operations for tiny amounts of money, this duo is now acquiring this franchise in which it will maintain its more than 120 points of sale, and its more than 2,000 employees.
The duo will operate the restaurants under the name ‘Domino Pizza‘, which will remain virtually unchanged, with the ‘i’ in Domino’s replaced by the equivalent Russian character и.
Timur Yunusov, known under the stage name Timati, is a rapper and entrepreneur who already owns a large chain of hamburger restaurants called Black Star, and who has on many occasions verbalized his support for the Kremlin, including through a song in which he noted: ‘My best friend is President Putin’.
This news came to the world nine days after DP Eurasia (DPEU.L), the operator of the Domino’s Pizza brand in Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia, said it would declare its Russian business bankrupt after giving up attempts to sell it.
The new Domino’s of this investment duo then continues in the wake of the government, who approved in April a decree allowing the state to take over the assets of companies in ‘hostile’ countries in retaliation for foreign measures against Russian companies, and their consequent alteration or transformation of businesses: from Lego, becoming ‘The World of Cubes’, to Krispy Kreme as ‘Krunchy Dream’, or McDonald’s outlets under the name ‘Vkusno & tochka’, or ‘Tasty and That’s It’.
