32 years later, McDonald's says goodbye to Russia 1:03
(CNN) --
It's the definitive end of two distinct eras:
It is the end of the era of McDonald's hamburger diplomacy withdrawing from Russia altogether.
Finland and Sweden's era of neutrality towards Russia is over as they seek to join NATO.
These events should put an end to any doubt about the permanence of this new world order, less stable and more militarized, caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
McDonald's in Russia was supposed to change the world
It was a tectonic shift in world affairs when McDonald's opened its first store in Russia in January 1990.
"It is conceded that a Western burger emporium in Moscow has all the intrinsic appeal of an ice cream parlor in hell," CNN correspondent Richard Blystone, sounding skeptical, said from Moscow in 1990.
Pointing to the world-changing occasion, Blystone said Russians accustomed to dining at state-subsidized restaurants were shocked by the efficiency of mass-produced burgers and just as taken aback by the promise of "service with a smile."
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See Blystone's 1990 report here.
McDonald's leaves Russia entirely 1:16
"Disarm" Russia
If you believed in the triumph of Western culture over Soviet Communism and the promise of "hamburger diplomacy"—and who didn't in the early 1990s—you may have wondered back then if the NATO was no longer needed.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed to confront the Soviet Union and stop the spread of communism.
Now, it is the era of Big Macs as symbols of world peace that is officially over.
In an email announcing that the company would "'disarm' a major market" for the first time in its history and pull out of Russia entirely, McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski noted that its existence in the country had greater importance than their hamburgers.
"In fact, hope is what brought McDonald's to the Russian market 32 years ago," Kempczinski said in his email, which is worth reading.
"The hope of a country that opened up to the world after decades of isolation. The hope that the world would connect a little more, and to be able to have the same Big Mac in Moscow as in Chicago was a fact (tasty) was a symbol of our growing connection.
That hope and promise, Kempczinski argued, is now unimaginable after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
What went wrong with the 'McDonald's peace theory'?
Kempczinski also mentioned the "McDonald's theory of peace," the overly simplistic and obviously flawed idea popularized by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman in his 1999 book, "The Lexus and the Olive Tree."
The idea was that two countries with McDonald's would never go to war.
The theory has never stood up to serious scrutiny.
Paul Musgrave is a professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and has criticized the idea of McDonald's diplomacy.
On Monday I asked him what he thought about McDonald's leaving Russia, and he called it the true end of an era.
"The world of brands transcending national loyalties was already on the ropes when Russia invaded Ukraine (again) in February," Musgrave said in an email.
And as corporation after corporation views the business climate in Putin's Russia as not just hostile today, but hostile for a long time, the notion that business will pave the way for democracy and peace has taken too many beatings. ”.
Summary of Russia's war in Ukraine on May 16
Video summary of the war Ukraine - Russia: May 16 19:14
The end of 50 years of neutrality
Meanwhile, two countries very close to Russia (Finland and Sweden, both with McDonald's) are moving to join NATO as soon as possible.
Both countries resisted the entire Cold War in neutrality and without joining NATO.
But Putin's aggression against Ukraine has them reevaluating.
His administration could begin the NATO application process this week.
"When we look at Russia, we see a very different kind of Russia than we saw just a few months ago," Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said on Sunday, CNN reported.
"Everything changed when Russia attacked Ukraine. And I personally think that we can no longer trust that there will be a peaceful future side by side with Russia."
Neutrality may not work in the future
Sweden also sees a new future, in which you have to take sides.
"Military non-alignment has served Sweden well, but our conclusion is that it will not serve us as well in the future," Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said, according to The New York Times.
The process to bring Sweden and Finland into NATO will take time as the legislatures of the 30 current NATO members must approve it.
At least one NATO member, Turkey, is not sold on the idea.
But it will ultimately mean that Russia will share a 1,300km border with a NATO country if Finland joins the alliance.
What is the process to join NATO?
1:23
A bigger NATO is an obvious setback for Putin
Ukraine's possible NATO membership was supposed to be among Russian President Vladimir Putin's reasons for invading that country.
So it's hard to see a NATO enlargement with Finland and Sweden (Ukraine would also like to join) as anything more than a huge failure.
With his military overextended in Ukraine and Finland already moving to sever many of his ties with Russia, there may be little Putin can do.
Putin downplayed it
This Monday, the Russian president argued that the inclusion of Finland and Sweden in NATO does not represent a threat to his country.
"As far as expansion is concerned, including new members Finland and Sweden, Russia has no problems with these states, none. And, in this regard, there is no immediate threat to Russia of an expansion that includes these countries," Putin said on Monday, according to Reuters, noting that this is a major change in tone.
He made the comments at a meeting of his own smaller security alliance and warned against military build-ups in the countries.
Earlier, his foreign minister said that joining NATO would be a serious mistake for Finland and Sweden.
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