Remittances from Russia to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Georgia rose to record levels, 3-5 times higher than in 2021, according to central bank data for 2022 analyzed by the Russian news site RBC.RU, cited by the Kyiv Independent .

Due to Western sanctions, foreign companies have left the Russian market, forcing Russian residents to order their goods online from abroad. Meanwhile, Russians themselves left the country en masse amid the announcement of mobilization: 9.7 million people left Russia in July-September, which is 12% more than in the same period of 2021.

The movement of money took place through the Russian money transfer tools “Zolotai Korona”, “Unistream” and “Kontakt”, since the international systems Visa and Mastercard left the Russian market.

About $775.4 million moved from Russia to Kazakhstan in 2022, 6.8 times more than in 2021 and the most since 2014.

Last year, about 2 billion dollars went to Georgia from Russia, and in 2022, 14.5 billion dollars went to Uzbekistan, which is 2.6 more than the previous year.

The Central Banks of Kyrgyzstan and Armenia have not yet published their figures for 2022. Data is available only for 11 months, RBK.RU reports.

During this time, transfers from Russia to Armenia quadrupled to $3.1 billion compared to January-November 2021, while transfers from Russia to Kyrgyzstan increased by only 6% to $2.6 billion.