MOSCOW: The Russian incarnation of KFC opened its first restaurant in Moscow on Tuesday after the American fast food chain exited the country over the Kremlin’s offensive in Ukraine.

The new owners of the US giant’s former restaurants across Russia are resuscitating Rostic’s, a brand that appeared in the tumultuous early years of post-Soviet Russia.

At the launch in central Moscow, Colonel Harland Sanders, the founder of the KFC chain, was absent from the logo, but the new colour scheme still featured its signature red and white.

Several dozen customers were seen at the Rostic’s flagship venue on Tuesday afternoon.

“For us Rostic’s is like a childhood memory,” Yevgeny Lazarev, a 31-year-old software tester, told AFP outside the restaurant. “They were here before and they came back.”

Originally launched in 1993, Rostic’s helped KFC expand in Russia and was eventually bought out by it.

For many Russians, Rostic’s brings back memories of the turbulent early years of transitioning to a free-market economy following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Another customer, Valeria Varygina, said the exit of Western giants would not affect her life.