Russian Man Handcuffs Himself To McDonald's Store Protesting Its Closure

A Russian pianist and McDonald’s patron reportedly handcuffed himself to the entrance to one of the joint’s outlets in Moscow in a bid to keep it open.

The man staged the protest in light of McDonald’s bringing down the shutters of its stores in Russia amidst the ongoing conflict with Ukraine.

Pianist Luka Safronov-Zatravkin, son of prominent Russian artist Nikas Safronov, was captured on video chained to the doors of the McDonald’s eatery Sunday as he protested the company’s decision to pause all operations in the country, according to Times Now.

“Closing down is an act of hostility against me and my fellow citizens!” the man was quoted saying by New York Post. Luka said the sanctions imposed against Russia by foreign countries are affecting ordinary people like him.

Luka protested outside the outlet as customers entered the fast-food joint to grab their last McDonald's meal before the chain closed down its operations. Cops eventually took him away from the scene.

Luka also posted a lengthy message Sunday on Telegram about the temporary closure of McDonald’s stores in Russia.

“I was born 31 October 1990 – just after 9 month [sic] after the foundation of the 1st McDonald’s in Russia. This coincidence is likely to have had an impact on my further life … Americans attracted us by their flavorings and haunting ads for many things. It’s not only fast food,” read Luka’s statement.

Luka’s dramatic protest came after the company’s president and CEO Chris Kempckinski sent a companywide note to his employees about temporarily closing all 847 of its restaurants in Russia.

Luka said the closure is depriving him of more than just the food he loves. “My weight is more than 270 kg. It is my choice, my means of self-estimate and freedom. Up to now, I could follow my own principals and ideas, which I share with the whole mankind,” the pianist went on to say on Telegram. “But I, a common peaceful citizen was deprived of this. Now I cannot have the food which I have been eating all my life. I cannot travel and see the world. I am deprived of those technologies which have been developed also thanks to my compatriot.”

He also said pets in Russia have to suffer as well because they, too, have gotten used to eating “one and the same food all their life.”

“Now I declare with the full sense of responsibility that the ban for those brands with which life of Russian people is connected – is an economical and phycological genocide,” Luka added in the statement.

“I am speaking about McDonald’s because this restaurant net has become the first gulp of fresh air in the far away 1990. And now hamburgers from McDonald’s are becoming the symbol of freedom violation. The first of all on behalf of the USA – the very state which proclaims human rights for every person throughout the world.”