The first Stars Coffee location had its grand opening in downtown Moscow on Thursday, August 18, marking the relaunch of the cafe chain previously owned by Starbucks. The American coffeehouse company announced its exit from Russia in late May, joining the mass withdrawal of foreign companies from the Russian market that followed Moscow's full-blown invasion of Ukraine. In July, the news broke that Russian rapper Timati (Timur Yunusov) and restaurateur Anton Pinsky had acquired the rights to the chain in Russia. The new co-owners then embarked upon rebranding, giving the chain a new (albeit similar) name and replacing its famous twin-tailed mermaid logo with a woman wearing a kokoshnik, a traditional Russian headdress.
Anton Novoderezhkin / TASS