The mass exodus of international brands from the Russian Federation has prompted the emergence of knock-off imitators, which have attempted to fill the void of Western capital while maintaining a sense of the familiar with subtle alterations of known foreign brands. When McDonald’s suspended activities in Russia on March 8 following a period of public backlash in the early weeks of the war, its franchises were quickly filled by an indigenous Russian competitor called “Uncle Vanya,” a brand that modifies the iconic golden arches of McDonald’s to represent the Cyrillic character “В,” which forms the “v” sound in “Vanya.” There is a precedent for such knockoff brands in the Russian sphere of influence, which have proliferated in the Russian-aligned breakaway territories of Donetsk and Luhansk after U.S. sanctions cut off Western business to the region in 2014. Brands such as Crimean Fried Chicken and Starducks Coffee emerged to fill the …