(Reuters] -McDonald’s Corp has announced that it will be selling its Russian operations to Alexander Govor, its current licensee. Restaurants would then operate under a new branding.

Govor manages the franchise operations via his firm GiD LLC. Govor has been an McDonald’s (NYSE 🙂 franchisee for over 15 years and helped expand the chain into Siberia. There, he operates 25 restaurants.

McDonald’s Russia has been operating in Russia since more than thirty years. It owns approximately 84% of the nearly 850 Russian restaurants. It announced that it will keep its trademark, but it was one of the largest global brands to leave Russia earlier this week.

However, the terms of the transaction were not disclosed by the company. It is anticipated that it will close in the following weeks. It provides that employees will remain with the company for at most two years, on similar terms. Govor would then pay the salaries of employees from 45 parts of the country.

McDonald’s in March announced that it would close all of its locations in the country. The iconic Pushkin Square location is located in Moscow, and was a reminder of American capitalism’s flourishing during the Soviet Union’s last years.

Last year, the company earned approximately 9% (or $2 billion) of its revenues from Russia and Ukraine.

Many other Western brands including Shell (LON) and Imperial Brands (OTC), agreed to either sell or transfer their Russian assets to local managers.