>>I don’t know whether McDonalds is technically exiting Russia or pausing its operations

From reading the McDonalds press release, it appears to be a pause; workers are still being paid.

More generally, there seem to be two things going on here (that I can't disentangle). One is that, for any consumer company based in the West, they have to look at customer reaction in the West as that's where the majority of their income is coming from. Two, some companies may have simply decided that the risks are too high for whatever potential profit - and that those profits might be stuck in rubles. As I remember McDonalds was the first Western company in the RF to not demand hard currency.

That aside, I would expect a 'stand together' reaction, no matter the leader, so a bit sad but not surprised.

Also (unrelated) the 'Z' on the disabled military vehicles seems interesting. Might be worth asking your friends what they think of that.