• Russia's rebranded Starbucks, Stars Coffee, reopened in Moscow on Thursday.
  • One of Stars Coffee's owners is Russian rapper Timur Yunusov, known as Timati.
  • Starbucks suspended its businesses in Russia in March, and pulled out of the country in May.

Former Starbucks coffee shops reopened in Moscow on Thursday as Stars Coffee.

The rebranded coffee shops are owned by Russian businessman Anton Pinskiy, Russian rapper Timur Yunusov, known as Timati, and Sindika Company, who bought all 130 Russian Starbucks businesses in the country from Starbucks Corp.

Russian rapper Timur Yunusov, known as Timati, in front of the Stars Coffee shop in Moscow, Russia on August 18. Foto: AP Photo/Dmitry Serebryakov

In place of the Starbucks mermaid, Stars Coffee's logo is a woman wearing a traditional Russian headdress called a kokoshnik, Russian media company Sostav reported. 

Starbucks announced in May it was pulling out of Russia and closing its 130 stores following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The coffee shop opened its first store in Russia in 2007.

"Starbucks has made the decision to exit and no longer have a brand presence in the market," the company previously told Insider in a statement. "We will continue to support the nearly 2,000 green apron partners in Russia, including pay for six months and assistance for partners to transition to new opportunities outside of Starbucks."  

Last week, Pinskiy, Yunusov, and Sindika filed three patent applications for possible chain names, including Stars Coffee and its logo, Sostav reported. According to Russian state-owned media agency Moscow24, Pinskiy is looking to register trademarks for 'Stars Pinskiy Coffee,' 'Stars Kanokov Coffee,' and 'Stars Coffee.' Moscow24 also reported that sandwiches, salads, pasta, pastries, and desserts, still will be sold in rebranded Starbucks shops, and that workers will use thermal printers to put names on cups.

In an interview with Russian news anchor Ksenia Sobchak, Pinskiy said the new coffee shops are supposed to be as close as possible to Starbucks, according to Sostav.

The rebranding and reopening of former Starbucks coffee shops in Russia is similar to the reopening and rebranding of McDonald's restaurants as Vkusno i tochka. 

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