AKIPRESS.COM - Twenty-six years after entering the Soviet Union, McDonald’s Corp. is reaching the oil-rich republic of Kazakhstan through a franchise run by a relative of the central Asian country’s president, Bloomberg reports.

The world’s largest restaurant chain will open its first location in Astana, Kazakhstan’s capital, on March 8 and plans to have 15 outlets in the near term, franchisee Kairat Boranbayev, the former head of a state-run natural gas venture with Russia’s Gazprom PJSC, told reporters in Moscow.

McDonald’s head for Russia and Eastern Europe Khamzat Khasbulatov said Boranbayev was picked because he has the McDonald’s franchise in Belarus, with 11 restaurants. The company was in talks about Kazakhstan for several years before Boranbayev’s daughter married Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s grandson, he said.

McDonald’s has expanded the number of franchises in the former Soviet Union, after starting with owned restaurants in Russia, to compete against the expansion of rival brands Burger King and KFC.