Andrei Kirilenko is Bringing Hooters to Russia

(Getty Images) Just three years after becoming a U.S. citizen, Brooklyn Nets forward Andrei Kirilenko owns his first Hooters franchise. And much in the same

(Getty Images)

Just three years after becoming a U.S. citizen, Brooklyn Nets forward Andrei Kirilenko owns his first Hooters franchise. And much in the same way Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov brought sports franchises owned by unpredictable oligarchs to America, Kirilenko hopes to introduce sports bars run by women in tank tops to his native Russia.

These are real quotes:

“What do politics have to do with a sports bar?” Kirilenko, 33, said by phone from New York. The Nets will begin the NBA playoffs this weekend.

“Russians and Americans are more alike than different -- huge sports fans who are looking for great food and good times,” Kirilenko said. “When you’ve got waitresses that look like ours, it’s a slam dunk.’

The first Kirilenko Hooters will open in Moscow near the former KGB headquarters, in case you needed an opening for your term paper on globalization.

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Bloomberg