Burger King on Thursday opened its first outlet in Russia, nearly two decades after its rival McDonald's, looking to capitalize on new markets' growing appetite for fast food.

The first opening in northwest Moscow will be followed by another downtown on Monday.

"Russia is an exciting, active market with a vibrant economy and the cosmopolitan city of Moscow will embrace the Burger King experience," Kevin Higgins, president of Burger King Europe, said in a statement.

"It is part of our overall growth plan to increase our brand presence in existing European markets as well as in strategic new ones," he added.

In February 2009, the company registered a Russian subsidiary.

The Miami-based company is partnering with Burger Rus LLC as its first franchisee in Russia. Burger Rus is owned by investors who previously successfully established a popular Russian coffee shop chain.

It expects to open more restaurants throughout the year in Russia but did not specify how many.

Thursday's opening in Moscow follows a number of new openings in Eastern Europe in the past 12 months, including two in Hungary, eight in Poland, four in Czech Republic and two in Romania.

Burger King runs more than 12,000 outlets in all 50 U.S. states and in 73 countries and U.S. territories worldwide.

Burger King's main rival, McDonald's, opened its first outlet in the Soviet Union in 1990 and now operates 235 restaurants throughout Russia.

(This version CORRECTS year that McDonald's opened outlet to 1990.)