I don't know the answer to your questions. But IMO these joint ventures are believable. AFAIK companies like McDonalds and Pepsi started local operations durin

I don't know the answer to your questions. But IMO these joint ventures are believable. AFAIK companies like McDonalds and Pepsi started local operations during the last years of the Soviet Union. It's possible that for at least a few years which followed, the regional operations were still managed from their office in Moscow.