Moscow wants to up rent on its two McDonald's

Moscow's government filed a lawsuit seeking higher rental payments from McDonald's Corp.'s two restaurants in the center of the Russian capital.

The city government will ask the local arbitration court to enforce a local law requiring a minimum annual rental rate of 1,000 rubles ($30.67) per square meter, Natalya Bykova, a spokeswoman at the Moscow property department's central territorial agency, said by telephone today. The McDonald's outlets signed a 49-year agreement in the early 1990s at an annual rate of 1 ruble per square meter, she said.

"Such rates as 1 ruble per square meter have not been valid in Moscow for several years," Bykova said today. "The minimum rate is what we are asking," she added.

Nina Prasolova, a spokeswoman for McDonald's in Russia, said the Oak Brook-based company hasn't received notice of the lawsuit.

"We are paying the rent that is specified by the contract," Prasolova said in a telephone interview, declining to comment further.