Hundreds of thousands of Russians, most of them young tech professionals, have reportedly left their country since the outbreak of the war. Thousands and possibly tens of thousands of them have settled in Armenia.
They include employees of Russian tech firms that have partly or fully relocated their personnel to the South Caucasus country to evade Western sanctions imposed on Moscow. The sanctions restricted their access to high technology and complicated their financial transactions abroad.
“We welcome everything that benefits Russian business,” Putin said during an economic forum in the Russian city of Vladivostok. “If the conditions are such that it is expedient and profitable for people, and they are mainly IT specialists, to work there, then for God's sake, let them work.”
“You can work in Yerevan but live in Moscow,” he added, according to the Sputnik news agency.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, who also attended the Vladivostok conference, said Armenia is always happy to receive Russians. He noted that they are far more likely to return to Russia from Armenia than European Union countries or the United States.
Putin claimed that many of those migrants have already returned home after realizing that the Russian economy has not collapsed under the weight of the sanctions.
The precise number of Russian expats remaining in Armenia is not known. Immigration authorities in Yerevan have said that so far this year they have received about 3,000 requests for residency permits from citizens of Russia and other members of the Eurasian Economic Union.
Armenian Central Bank data shows that money transfers from Russia to Armenia more than doubled in the first half of this year. This is a key reason why the Armenian currency, the dram, has strengthened by 16 percent against the U.S. dollar and over 30 percent against the euro since February 24.