Russians were spotted attempting to leave their country for Georgia to avoid military conscription on September 28, 2022. Davit Kachkachishvili/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
After the outbreak of war in Ukraine, many Russians fled their homeland.
Many settled in neighboring countries such as Armenia, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan.
According to a new report, the economic growth of these countries has skyrocketed in 2022 after the arrival of these Russians.
This is a machine translation of an article by our US colleagues at Insider. It was automatically translated and checked by a real editor. We welcome feedback at the end of the article.
Hundreds of thousands of Russians who fled their homes after the country invaded Ukraine have settled in neighboring countries – boosting their economies. The Russian exodus began after many highly educated professionals – such as academics, finance and technology professionals – left Russia in the early days of the war.
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About six months later, another wave of migration occurred after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilization of the military for the Ukraine war on September 21. By October 2022, about 700,000 Russians had left the country, reported Reuters citing Russian media. However, the Kremlin rejected these figures on the grounds that they did not have the data.
Russians are building a new livelihood in neighboring countries
Many of these Russians ended up in neighboring countries, where they set up new livelihoods and businesses, boosting those countries’ economies, the independent Russian news agency reported Novaya Gazeta am Freitag. The gross domestic product (GDP) of the South Caucasus — a region that includes Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia — grew at above-average rates in 2022, according to the World Bank 7 percent. This far exceeds the 5.6 percent growth forecast by World Bank economists.
Armenia — once known as the Silicon Valley of the Soviet Union — saw a 12.6 percent growth spurt in 2022, according to the World Bank. The economists at the World Bank had forecast growth of seven percent for the country last year.
Economic growth exceeds World Bank forecasts
Suren Parsyan, a lecturer at the State University of Economics of Armenia, told Novaya Gazeta that Armenia’s growth over the past year has been thanks to newly arrived Russians, particularly those working in the IT sector. The Russians also transferred about $1.75 billion to Armenia in 2022, the governor of the Central Bank of Armenia, Martin Galstyan, said in January this year Armenia-based agency NEWS.am reported.
Meanwhile, according to the World Bank, Georgia’s GDP rose by 10.1 percent in 2022, beating the growth forecast of 8.8 percent. According to the Georgian Central Bank Remittances from Russia have quintupled from $411 million in 2021 to $2.1 billion in 2022. Even Kyrgyzstan’s economy grew by seven percent in 2022, beating a forecast of four percent according to the World Bank.
Immigration does not only have positive consequences
Turkey, a hotspot for Russian war refugees, posted economic growth of 5.6 percent in 2022, beating the 4.7 percent forecast, according to World Bank data. Oleg Itskhoki, an economics professor at the University of California, told Novaya Gazeta that GDP developments in these countries show that newly arrived Russians have savings and are wealthier than locals.
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But of course, immigration has not only had a positive impact on national economies. The influx of Russians has also contributed to a surge in inflation, such as a spike in hotel prices and rents in Kazakhstan and Georgia, such as Bloomberg reported in September last year.
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