I remember when McDonalds opened their first restaurant in Moscow back when it was still Soviet Russia. They had to have special potatoes grown in Russia for their fries.
Remember the movie “One, Two, Three”?
Peripetchikoff : No formula, NO DEAL!
C.R. MacNamara : OK, NO DEAL!
Borodenko : We do not need you! If we want Coca-cola, we invent it ourselves!
C.R. MacNamara : Oh, yeah? In 1956 you flew a bottle of Coke to a secret laboratory in Sverdlosk. A dozen of your top chemists went nuts trying to analyze the ingredients. Right?
Mishkin : No comment!
C.R. MacNamara : And in 1958, you planted two undercover agents in Atlanta to steal the formula. And what happened? They both defected! And now they’re successful businessmen in Florida packaging instant borscht. Right?
Peripetchikoff : No comment!
C.R. MacNamara : Last year you put out a cockamamie imitation “Kremlin-kola!” You tried it out in the satellite countries, but even the Albanians wouldn’t drink it. They used it for SHEEP DIP! RIGHT?
Mishkin : No comment!
C.R. MacNamara : So either get down to business or get off the pot!
Peripetchikoff : My dear American friend, if we are to live together in peaceful coexistence, there must be a certain amount of give and take.
C.R. MacNamara : Oh, sure - we give and you take.
Peripetchikoff : What is the matter - you do not trust us?
C.R. MacNamara : No comment!
I remember being at the train station in Kiev, a building the size of an airport filled with thousands of people at any given time, and none of the public restrooms were working.
The employees helpfully suggested that anyone who needed to use the restroom to please do so at the McDonald's across the street.