The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has published data on Russians leaving the country in the period from July to September, RBC newspaper points out.
People exited the country a total of 9.7 million times. According to RBC, the FSB compiles the times citizens have crossed the border, that is, the figure implies the number of trips made, not the number of citizens who left.
The number of trips to Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Mongolia, and Abkhazia from July to September is the highest in five years. Nearly 70% of all trips were to Abkhazia, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and Finland.
From July to September 2022, the number of trips abroad has been nearly two times higher than in the second quarter of the year (back then, 5 million trips abroad were made) and 1.2 million higher than the corresponding period of 2021. However, the figure has turned out to be nearly two times lower than it was before the COVID pandemic: from July to September 2019, a total of 16.1 million trips were made from Russia to foreign countries.
