- Scores of Russians fled their homeland following the outbreak of the Ukraine war.
- Many resettled in neighboring countries such as Armenia, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan.
- The growth of such countries surged in 2022 after the arrival of these Russians, per a new report.
Hundreds of thousands of Russians who fled their homeland following the country's invasion of Ukraine have resettled in neighboring countries — and are boosting their economies.
The exodus of Russians started after many highly educated professionals — such as academics, finance, and tech workers — left Russia in the early days of the war, Insider's Jason Lalljee reported in March 2022. About six months later, there was another wave of departures after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial military mobilization for the Ukraine war on September 21.
By October 2022, about 700,000 Russians had left the country, Reuters reported citing Russian media — however, the Kremlin rejected those numbers saying it doesn't have this data.
Many of these Russians ended up in neighboring countries, setting up new lives and businesses, and ended up boosting the economies of these nations, the independent Russian media outlet Novaya Gazeta reported on Friday.
The GDP of the South Caucasus — a region comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia — grew by an outsized 7% in 2022, according to the World Bank. This far outpaced the 5.6% growth that World Bank economists had predicted.
Armenia — once known as the Silicon Valley of the Soviet Union — saw its 2022 growth spike to 12.6%, per the World Bank. The institution's economists had forecast a 7.0% growth for the country last year.
Suren Parsyan, a lecturer at the Armenian State University of Economics, told Novaya Gazeta that Armenia's growth last year was thanks to the newly arrived Russians, particularly those who work in IT.
Russians transferred about $1.75 billion to Armenia in 2022, Martin Galstyan, the country's central bank governor said in January this year, the Armenia-based NEWS.am agency reported.
Meanwhile, Georgia's GDP jumped by 10.1% in 2022, per the World Bank, beating an 8.8% growth forecast. Money transfers from Russia rose five-fold from $411 million in 2021 to $2.1 billion in 2022, according to data from Georgia's central bank.
Even Kyrgyzstan's economy grew by 7% in 2022, outpacing a 4% forecast, per the World Bank.
Turkey, a hot spot for Russia fleeing the war, saw its economy grow 5.6% in 2022, outpacing a forecast of 4.7%, per the World Bank data.
Oleg Itskhoki, an economics professor at the University of California, told Novaya Gazeta that the GDP performance in such countries demonstrates that the newly arrived Russians had savings and were wealthier than the local residents.
But to be sure, immigration hasn't only had a positive impact on the economies. The influx of Russians also contributed to a rise in inflation, such as a jump in hotel rates and rents in Kazakhstan and Georgia, Bloomberg reported in September last year.