MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik – March 16th, 2023) About 110,000 Russians will move to Armenia for permanent residence in 2022 amid the conflict in Ukraine and the partial mobilization of their homeland, the Minister of Armenian Economy Vahan Kerobyan on Thursday.

“The clean relocation is about 108,000-110,000 citizens in 2022. That is how many Russians came to Armenia and stayed permanently. In addition, about 2,500 legal entities with Russian participants were opened last year, out of 4,000 businesses registered in the form of individual entrepreneurs . . . ,” Kerobyan told Russia’s Vedomosti newspaper.

The minister added that on average, Russians open 500 businesses in Armenia every year.

“The companies are very different in terms of size, in some of them the staff consists of 600-700 employees, in others there is one person working.

The additional inflow of customer funds into the Armenian banking system was $3 billion last year,” Kerobyan said.

These factors accounted for almost a quarter of Armenia’s GDP growth, which was more than 3% at 12.6%, the minister specified.

After the start of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine in February and the declaration of the subsequent partial mobilization of the country in September, many Russian citizens, including highly-qualified personnel, moved to foreign countries, especially Georgia, Armenia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. ..