Short answers, pulled from the story.
Americanization is the influence of United States culture and economy on other countries, covering media, cuisine, business practices, popular culture, technology, and political techniques. Harm G. Schröter defined it as an adapted transfer of values, institutions, technologies, and norms from the U.S. to the economic life of other states. Some observers have described it as synonymous with progress and innovation.
Hollywood has dominated most of the world's media markets since the 1910s. Nearly all of the top 50 highest-grossing films of all time were made entirely or partially in the United States or were financed by U.S. production companies. This includes films set and filmed abroad, such as parts of the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings franchises, which count as American productions for financial reasons.
The first McDonald's in Soviet Russia opened on Pushkin Square in Moscow on the 31st of January 1990. Approximately 38,000 customers waited in hours-long lines, breaking the company's records at the time. By 1997, there were 21 locations of the Russian chain.
American investments in Europe soared by 800% between 1950 and 1965, reaching $13.9 billion. Within the European Economic Community specifically, they rose tenfold to $6.25 billion, and Europe's share of total American overseas investment climbed from 15% to 28%. By the 1970s, European investment flowing into the United States had increased even more rapidly than the reverse.
During the Cold War, Americanization served as the primary soft power method to counter Sovietization. Education and universities were the main target. The U.S. government also restructured media in occupied Axis countries after World War II, including launching the newspaper Die Neue Zeitung in Munich in 1945 through its occupation headquarters OMGUS.
In a 2013 opinion piece published in The New York Times, Putin warned that "it is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation." The piece attacked the American tendency to view itself as an indispensable nation.