Russian media: Money transfers from Russia to neighboring countries up by 300-500% in 2022

Money transfers from Russia to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, and Georgia were reported at record-breaking levels, several times the figures for 2021, according to the 2022 central banks’ numbers analyzed by the Russian news site RBC.RU.

Due to Western-imposed sanctions, popular foreign companies have left the Russian market, pushing Russian residents to order goods online from abroad. Meanwhile, Russians themselves left the country en masse amid the announcemnt of mobilization: 9,7 million people left Russia in July-September, 12% more than during the same period a year before.

The movement of funds took place via Russian money transfer tools Zolotaya Korona, Unistream, and Contact, since international payment systems Visa and Mastercard left the Russian market the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.

Around $775,4 million moved from Russia to Kazakhstan in 2022, 6,8 times higher than in 2021 and the largest amount since at least 2014.

Around $2 billion came from Russia to Georgia last year. In 2021, this number was five times smaller and stood at $411,3 million.

The amount from Russia to Uzbekistan made $14,5 billion in 2022, 2,6 as much as the year before.

The central banks of Kyrgyzstan and Armenia have not yet published their figures for the year 2022. The data is only available for 11 months, RBC.RU reported.

In this timeframe, transfers from Russia to Armenia quadrupled to $3.1 billion compared to January-November 2021, a record number since 2004, while transfers from Russia to Kyrgyzstan rose only 6% to $2,6 billion.

Even after sanctions, Russian economy can pay for war

The Kyiv Independent