After 30 years, the Golden Arches have fallen in Russia.

McDonald’s has pulled the plug on all 847 locations inside Russia, making permanent the temporary closure imposed at the start of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski announced he will sell off all assets and inventory in Russia, enforce McDonald’s trademarks against infringement, while continuing to pay their 62,000 Russian employees until a buyer is found.

“It is no longer tenable, nor is it consistent with McDonald’s values,” to continue doing business in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, said Kempczinski.

Russia’s 32-year embrace of Western culture’s most recognizable symbol has come to a sudden end. Now we’re left to ask, is this a blow to Putin or a dream come true?

On Jan. 31, 1990 a single McDonald’s store opened near Red Square. Clearly, Micky-D’s expected great things from Russia.

The first McDonalds offered seating for 900. If there was any doubt about the significance of this event, McDonald’s made it abundantly clear by advertising: “If you can’t go to America, come to McDonald’s Moscow.” And so, 30,000 Muscovites took them up on the invitation the very first day, gobbling up Big Macs and fries and washing it down with an ocean of Coca-Cola. The Iron Curtain had been breached. There was no going back.

Or so we foolishly thought.

When McDonald’s breached Red Square, it was cause for jubilation for millions of ordinary Russians and those of us in the West who hoped to see the Cold War in the rearview mirror. That was not the case for Putin.

For Vlad and his ideological wingmen, the Golden Arches falling is a residual bonus to his criminal war in Ukraine. Scrubbing the Russian landscape of the very symbol of American capitalism is a victory for the old Soviet mindset Putin still embraces.

Food, even fast food, unites people. When we experience different cultures, psychic Iron Curtains tumble. One by one, we experience new tastes and sights and sounds and ideas. People who once seemed strange or even frightening become familiar and often friends. Growing up in New York 40 years ago, I couldn’t imagine eating a street taco. Now, I can’t imagine not eating one.

The fall of McDonald’s arches will undoubtedly be hailed by millions of Russians because Putin’s propaganda machine will insist Quarter Pounders with Cheese are Nazi Burgers, a corrupt Western intrusion and maybe even a CIA plot.

Privately, millions more will recognize McDonald’s withdrawal as the cultural and economic setback it is, a giant leap backward to the bad old days of an insular, freedom-crushing totalitarianism the Russian people have known all too well.

From czars to Politburos, Russia’s political history is one of massive tragedies, with pogroms and gulags, government-engineered famines and wars and only brief interludes of glasnost before the hammer (and sickle) returns.

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While McDonald’s has clearly done the right thing by leaving Russia, it has also inadvertently offered a pillow for Putin to land on.

By continuing to pay 62,000 Russian workers, McDonald’s has absolved Putin of the increased unemployment his war has caused. While I loathe innocent people having to suffer the consequences of someone else’s actions, the Russian people must feel the pain if Ukraine, Moldova, the Baltic and Poland are to remain free. Kindness to Russia’s McDonald’s employees is a cruelty to the Ukrainians.

Doug McIntyre’s column appears Sundays. He can be reached at: [email protected].