More People Departed to Russia Than Returned to Armenia in One Month: NSS Data

For already one month, citizens of Armenia have been able to travel to Russia, and those in Russia can return to Armenia. To do this, it is required to take a coronavirus test at the corresponding laboratories and receive a negative result within a maximum of 3 days, as the test result remains valid for that duration.

On February 3, in the Ararat region, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that, regarding this issue, “Interestingly, on the first day that Russia opened, more people arrived than left.”

Analitik.am sent a query to the office of Armenia's Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan to clarify how many people left Armenia for Russia and how many returned from Russia to Armenia. “We kindly ask you to inform us how many people left Armenia for Russia and how many returned from Russia to Armenia starting from February 1 until the moment the response to the inquiry is written. Please provide the numbers broken down by each day.”

Our inquiry was directed by the Deputy Prime Minister’s office to the NSS, from which we received a response: “In response to your inquiry addressed to the head of the RA Deputy Prime Minister’s office dated 12.02.2021, we hereby provide the data concerning the number of persons that departed to the RF and returned to the RA from February 1 to 17, from the electronic border management informational system available at ‘Zvartnots’ and ‘Gyumri’ checkpoints.”

From the data, it is clear that on the first day, more people left (1159) than arrived (917).