Number of Russians Applying for Citizenship in Armenia Revealed

A total of 14,661 Russian citizens have applied to the Armenian Police for citizenship. The overwhelming majority of applicants—97%—are of Armenian ethnicity. This information was provided by the Police Public Relations and Information Department in response to a written inquiry from the media outlet Hetq.

The media has received reports that many Russian citizens are applying to the Passport and Visa Department of the Armenian Police for citizenship.

According to law enforcement data, from January 1 to October 27, 2022, a total of 19,630 applications for Armenian citizenship were submitted. The absolute majority of these applicants—19,019—were of Armenian nationality. An analysis of the data indicates a sharp increase in applications for Armenian citizenship beginning one week after the onset of the Russia-Ukraine war in March. If January and February had 643 and 892 applications respectively, then in March there were 1,670, in April 2,154, in May 2,180, in June 2,378, in July 2,645, in August 2,363, and in September 2,449. From October 1 to October 27, there were 2,256 applications.

This year, the geographical distribution of the 19,630 applicants for Armenian citizenship is as follows: 14,661 from Russia, 1,715 from Georgia, 1,045 from Lebanon, 528 from Syria, 456 from Iran, 220 from the USA, 225 from Ukraine, and citizens from other countries.

Last year, there were 8,591 applications for Armenian citizenship, while there were 7,869 applications in 2020.