Russians' trips to Armenia triple in Q1, data shows

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Federal Security Service of Russia has admitted the sharp increase in the number of citizens who left the country in January-March 2022, RFE/RL's Russian Service says.

The number of Russians traveling to Armenia has tripled, while the number of those preferring Georgia has increased by almost five times, according to the data published by the authorities.

In the first quarter of 2022, 134,000 Russians left for Armenia. Most of those who left – 78,000 – mentioned that they were traveling for private purposes, while 41,000 said for tourism. For comparison, in the first three months of 2021, only 44,000 citizens left Russia for Armenia.

Departure to Uzbekistan (53,000 people who left against 15,000 a year earlier), Tajikistan (40,000 and 8,000, respectively), Azerbaijan (56,000 and 20,000) has grown significantly too.

Experts attribute the significant migration of Russians to a number of factors, including the lifting of Covid restrictions, which were still in effect in many countries in 2021. However, one of the key reasons was also the Russian war in Ukraine.