In Moscow the next morning, I join the queue at McDonald’s just off Pushkin Street. The Moscow McDonald’s is by far the biggest fastfood outlet in the world, serving 70,000 customers a day on weekends. Normally there are about 1,500 people in line and it can take them an hour to reach the counters. In the queue I meet Boris and Nataly Smirnov and their 4-year-old daughter, Irina. Boris. 37, is an electronics engineer. Nataiy, 34, a teacher by profession, is now a fulltime housewife. Nataly speak better English but her husband is more outspoken.
I ofter to take them to the “dollars-only” Pizza Hut just down the road. There’s a long queue for take-away at noon only three tables are taken. The Smirnovs have never been in an empty restaurant. They are stunned.
Irina jumps around as her parents order her some ice cream. The Smirnovs thank me profusely for buying them a meal at such a nice restaurant. I tell them I find the discrimination offensive. Those who can only pay in roubles line up for hours. Those who can afford dollas can walk into empty restaurants. The Pizzas for both sets of patrons come from the same kitchen. In South Africa they call it apartheid. In Moscow it’s tack of hard currency.