Friday, June 23 2023 15:17

ArmInfo. In general, residents of neighboring countries are comfortable with those who arrived in the last wave of relocation from Russia, they are ready to help them, but they expect that they will still not stay for long. This conclusion was made by the authors of the study, which was conducted by the "Platform"  social project planning center and the "OnIn"  research company in nine countries of the former USSR. Its results were provided to RBC in the press service of the "Platform".

In Kazakhstan and Belarus, for example, more than 50% of respondents  are sure that immigrants will not have a noticeable impact on their  lives. But there are those who believe that visitors will bring harm  - this opinion is shared by 21% of respondents in Georgia, which  leads in terms of the number of people with such a position. Survey  participants complain that the influx of new residents leads to an  increase in the cost of living, the emergence of conflicts against  the backdrop of different mentalities or values.

However, in the same Georgia, more than 40% of those who believe that  the Russians who have arrived can be useful. And in neighboring  Armenia, 73% share this opinion. The emergence of highly qualified  specialists, an increase in demand for services, and earning  opportunities for local residents are welcomed by residents of  Tajikistan (55%) and Kyrgyzstan (42%). In Uzbekistan, respondents  indicated that they are happy with the arrival of specialists (46%),  but only 23% believe that this will affect the technological  effectiveness of their country.

At the same time, residents of Kazakhstan and Central Asia are sure  (48-63%) that immigrants will not stay for long and will go to other  countries or return back. The situation is reversed in the  Transcaucasian countries - in Armenia, 63% of respondents believe  that the Russians will thoroughly settle permanently in their  country, in Georgia, 57% share this opinion. And in Azerbaijan, 9%  expressed confidence that those who came from Russia will settle  permanently in their country. In March, Armenian authorities reported  that more than 110,000 Russians had arrived in the country in 2022.

2.5 thousand legal entities with Russian participants and another 4  thousand individual entrepreneurs were registered. According to the  Minister of Economy of Armenia Vahan Kerobyan, out of the total  growth of the Armenian economy of 12.6%, three percentage points were  provided due to the relocation of Russians.  In April, the National  Statistics Service of Georgia reported that 62.3 thousand immigrants  from Russia arrived in the country last year (for comparison, there  were three times fewer migrants from Ukraine).  Earlier, Tbilisi said  that a total of 1.5 million Russians arrived in the country, but it  was also about tourists and those who returned after a short time.  According to the Ministry of Justice of Georgia, Russians bought  6,000 apartments in the country in 2022. In Q1 2023, Russian citizens  bought 2.1 thousand apartments out of 5159 sold to foreigners.

More than 200,000 Russian citizens have arrived in Kazakhstan, and  about 147,000 have left the country, said Minister of Internal  Affairs of Kazakhstan Marat Akhmetzhanov. The British consulting  company Oxford Economics calculated that in total, Russians could  bring about $3 billion in cash to Armenia, Georgia and Kazakhstan in  September alone (when partial mobilization was announced). In  Kazakhstan, the amount of funds on bank deposits of Russian citizens  in 2022 more than quadrupled and amounted to $1.4 billion, said  Tatiana Orlova, an expert at Oxford Economics.