Russian Economy: Russians Fleeing Russia Drive Up Housing Prices in Yerevan

The number of online searches in Russian for apartment rentals in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, surged this summer. In July, interest from users of Yandex, the leading search engine in Russia, reached levels comparable to September-October 2022, when Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization of 300,000 men to fight on the front in Ukraine¹.

• Since 2017, Russians can travel to Armenia visa-free and with their simple internal passport (“внутренний паспорт”), which is used to identify themselves and complete administrative procedures within the country.

Several hundred thousand people had left the country in 2022-2023 following the launch of the invasion of Ukraine, and later to escape mobilization.

• Armenia (like Georgia) had experienced a large influx of these people, most of whom have since dispersed back to Russia.
• The country, partially Russian-speaking, has a standard of living lower than that of the major cities of western Russia, such as Moscow and Saint Petersburg.
• These mass arrivals had saturated the rental market in Yerevan, pushing the average monthly rent from 200,000–250,000 drams (roughly 500–600 euros) to 500,000 drams (about 1,200 euros), nearly double the average wage.

Price increases of a similar magnitude have been seen in recent weeks in Yerevan, where some landlords have doubled the rents on their apartments. According to the Russian media “We Can Explain” (Можем объяснить), nearly 80% of landlords raised the rent on their apartments last month².

• Answering, at the end of August, a journalist’s question about a possible influx of Russian immigrants fleeing mobilization, the Armenian Security Council Secretary, Alen Simonian, stated: “At the border, no one intends to ask anyone why they came here […] I have only one thing to say to a Russian: ‘Welcome to Armenia’. Here we love everyone, we respect everyone.”
• These remarks were condemned by Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, who denounced “speculations fueled by the Ukrainian junta and its Western supporters.”

The Kremlin is attempting to curb rumors about a potential mobilization after the elections on September 20.

• In an interview given to the Russian outlet Vedomosti (Ведомости) on September 10, Dmitry Medvedev, vice chairman of the Security Council, asserted that “the needs of the Russian armed forces are fully met by contract soldiers and volunteers. They are true patriots. Therefore, mobilization is unnecessary.”
• According to regional budget data from Russia compiled by Janis Kluge, volunteer recruitment stood at about 1,000 people per day in August, 20% below August 2025.
• Russia is thus losing more men on the front than it manages to recruit.