No fries till autumn at some of McDonald's Russian successor restaurants

FILE PHOTO: A customer pays for a meal at the new restaurant "Vkusno & tochka", which opens following McDonald's Corp company's exit from the Russian market, in Moscow, Russia June 12, 2022. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Excitement was on the menu when former McDonald's restaurants reopened in Russia last month under new management and branding, but the successor to the golden-arched throne has a problem: a shortage of French fries.

McDonald's quit Russia after a Western backlash against Moscow's military campaign in Ukraine, which included a barrage of economic sanctions, and sold all the restaurants it owned to a local licensee in May.