Translated material
Russians have started traveling abroad more often
Russian citizens traveled abroad 9% more often in January-June than in the first half of 2023, the RBC publication analyzed FSB statistics. In the first six months of 2024, Russians made 12.6 million trips abroad. Most often, according to statistics, they visited neighboring countries.
The most popular country in the former USSR in the first half of the year was unrecognized Abkhazia. 2.2 million Russians left through the border with this part of Georgia. The next most popular were Kazakhstan, Armenia and the rest of Georgia.
The most popular of the far abroad countries, according to the FSB, were Turkey, the UAE, Egypt and Thailand. 2.5 million Russian citizens went to Turkey in the first six months of 2024.
China turned out to be the country to which departures increased most noticeably compared to last year. Russians crossed the border of their country with the PRC in January-June 14 times more often than in the first half of 2023 — 405.3 thousand times. This is 3.5% more than in the first half of 2019, a record year for Russian tourists in China (391.4 thousand departures).
The FSB collects statistics with the help of the border service, which records the number of times Russian and foreign citizens cross the state border. If the same person has traveled outside their country several times, then the FSB statistics include the number of times they have crossed the state border in one direction.
The number of visits by foreigners to Russia in January-June increased by 11.5% compared to the first half of 2023, to 7.9 million times.
In 2023, the most popular destinations among Russians were also Abkhazia and Turkey.
Since the beginning of the war, about 650 thousand citizens of Russia have left and never returned, The Bell reported , having collected information from migration agencies of 70 countries. The most popular destination for emigration was Armenia, where about 110 thousand Russians have left since February 2022.
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