Where billions come from to Armenia — the “Zangezur gambit” pointed to the money card

You can talk as much as you like about Armenia’s new foreign policy vectors, diversification and the search for new economic partners, but the economy has a feature that is unpleasant for any political rhetoric — it counts money. And if you look at just two indicators — remittances from individuals and tourism — the picture turns out to be very revealing, the Zangezur Gambit telegram channel said.

In 2025, individuals in Armenia received about $5.98 billion from abroad through the banking system. Of these, approximately $3.88 billion came from Russia. That is, about 65% of the total incoming flow. For comparison, about $ 734 million came from the USA. It turns out that about two out of every three dollars coming to individuals in Armenia from abroad through banks, fall on the Russian direction, the author of the channel notes.

Then he counted the funds from tourism. In 2025, about 2.26 million tourists visited Armenia, and more than 921 thousand came from Russia. This is about 41% of the total tourist flow. In fact, Russia alone provides about two-fifths of Armenia’s inbound tourism, the Zangezur Gambit emphasized.

“But a tourist is not just a person in statistics. This is a hotel or rented apartment, restaurant, taxi, shop, excursion, entertainment. According to the latest detailed study of the expenses of foreign visitors, a Russian tourist left an average of about $860 per trip in Armenia. If we use this figure as a benchmark for the tourist flow of 2025, we get an amount of about $ 790 million,” the author of the channel estimated.

He compared these two figures: $ 3.88 billion in revenues to individuals from Russia and approximately about $ 0.8 billion in expenses of Russian tourists. Only in these two areas we are talking about cash flows of about $ 4.7 billion per year, he stressed. And this is even without trade, the export of Armenian products to the Russian market, energy, investments and the activities of Russian capital in Armenia.

“This is where the main question begins. You can change the political rhetoric, announce new foreign policy priorities and talk about diversification. But economic diversification does not begin with statements. It begins when other markets appear that can replace existing cash flows. If Russia’s share in these two indicators decreases significantly tomorrow, who will replace $3.9 billion in transfers? Who will replace more than 900 thousand tourists and hundreds of millions of dollars of their expenses? USA? The European Union? The Middle East? And most importantly — for how long? Because geopolitics can be drawn on the map pretty quickly. But redrawing the money card is much more difficult,” concluded the author of the channel.