Russia Falls to 11th in Georgia Remittance Inflows

Georgia remittances from Russia fell 87.7% in August 2026, to $5.07 million. The National Bank of Georgia put Russia 11th among source countries, out of the top 10 for the first time in years, after the main Russian transfer system stopped serving the Georgian corridor.

Total money transfers from abroad were $295.17 million, 8.2% below August 2025. The February 2024 scare, when inflows dropped 26.9%, was the first public crack in a wartime Russian windfall that has now been cut.

Russia’s August Transfers Fall to $5 Million

The central bank published the August print on September 15. Russia had sent $51.42 million in June and $42.02 million in July. In August the figure was $5.07 million, 1.7% of all incoming transfers, behind Turkey, Spain, Kazakhstan, the United Kingdom and France.

The United States led with $64.14 million, 21.7% of the total and 8.2% higher than a year earlier. Italy sent $55.22 million (18.7%, up 3.5%), Germany $31.31 million (10.6%, up 6.8%), Greece $28.24 million (9.5%, up 12.4%) and Israel $27.92 million (9.4%, up 24.8%). EU members as a group sent $149.93 million, up 3.9%, half of all inflows at 50.8%. The EU and the United States together accounted for $214.07 million, or 72.5%.

AUGUST 2026 TRANSFERS BY SOURCE COUNTRY

Outbound transfers from Georgia were $33.6 million, down 5.8% from August 2025. Households still take in far more than they send out, which is why the central bank’s money-transfer series remains a watched line in the external accounts.

Why the February 2024 Drop Still Matters

In February 2024, transfers into Georgia were $272.3 million, 26.9% below February 2023. EU countries sent 15.9% more than a year earlier and supplied 38.79% of the month. Non-EU countries fell 40.7% and still held 61.21%. Russia remained first, at $62.2 million, but that was already 66.8% below the year before, a 22.8% share of the total. Italy followed at $43.97 million and the United States at $41.21 million.

That month looked like a broad remittance slump. It was mostly the Russian line coming off a war spike, while EU and US labor transfers kept growing. Two and a half years later the same split is complete: Western sources hold most of the flow, and Russia is a rounding error in a single month.

A Wartime Share That Could Not Last

Russia supplied 54% of Georgia’s recorded transfers in 2013 and 18% in 2021, still first even as Italy, Greece, Germany and the United States gained. Then the full-scale war in Ukraine and Russia’s partial mobilisation pushed a wave of people and money across the Caucasus. Russia’s share had been 13% in the first quarter of 2022. It jumped to 55% in the second quarter and 60% in the fourth. Between April 2022 and July 2023, Russia averaged 49% of inflows.

THE RUSSIA CORRIDOR SINCE 2021

1. 2021: Russia sends $411 million and remains the top source at an 18% share.
2. 2022: Transfers from Russia reach $2.07 billion, 47% of a $4.4 billion national total.
3. 2023: The Russian line eases to $1.53 billion, 37% of $4.15 billion incoming.
4. 2024: Russia falls to third place at $541 million, 16% of $3.36 billion, as the national total drops 19%.
5. 2025: National transfers recover 8.5% to $3.65 billion; Russia slips further to $468 million, while the United States sends $682.9 million and Italy $621.4 million.
6. August 2026: Russia sends $5.07 million and ranks 11th after the Korona cutoff.

The 2024 national drop of 19%, to $3.36 billion, was the hangover from that 2022 peak. The 2025 rebound to $3.65 billion came from the United States, Italy, Germany and Greece, not from a Russian revival. The September macroeconomic review tables show the Russian column still shrinking through 2025, before any new sanctions hit the pipes.

Zolotaya Korona Stops Transfers to Georgia

The August collapse was not another slow fade. Late July cut the rail the remaining Russian traffic still used. On July 23, 2026, the Council of the European Union adopted the EU’s 21st Russia sanctions package, listing 218 names, including a wide freeze on Russian banks and payment firms. Among them was Payment Center, the non-bank credit institution that runs and clears Zolotaya Korona, the Golden Crown transfer system.

Zolotaya Korona then halted transfers to Georgia. TBC Capital, the research unit of Tbilisi-based TBC Bank, said the system had handled more than 97% of fast money transfers from Russia to Georgia in July. In August that rail was gone, and the recorded Russian total fell more than eightfold from the 2026 monthly average of about $42 million through July.

WHAT THE KORONA CUTOFF CHANGED

• The listing: Payment Center, operator of Zolotaya Korona, was added to the EU freeze list on July 23, 2026, as part of a round that targeted 94 Russian banks and financial institutions.
• The halt: The system stopped serving Georgia in late July, removing the corridor most remaining Russia-Georgia transfers still used.
• The August print: Recorded transfers from Russia fell to $5.07 million, the weakest month in that series since at least 2012 on figures compiled from the National Bank.
• The same pipe elsewhere: Transfers from Kyrgyzstan, another Korona-heavy corridor, fell 80.4% year on year to $2.19 million, which is the signature of a blocked rail, not a sudden change in Georgian demand.

TBC Capital said some of the lost volume may come back in later months as senders switch to other routes, including systems that credit Georgian cards directly. The August number is the shock of a closed pipe. It is not yet proof that every ruble-source household payment has stopped for good.

The United States and Italy Now Lead

By 2024 the United States had already taken first place for the year, sending $573 million, with Italy second at $567 million. That ranking held through 2025, when US transfers reached $682.9 million and Italian transfers $621.4 million. In August 2026 the same two countries were still first and second, and the EU bloc alone was more than half of all inflows.

Those are labor corridors, built over decades of Georgian work in Italy, Greece, Germany and the United States, plus a large Israeli channel. They moved in the opposite direction of the Russian line after 2022. US transfers rose 222% between 2019 and 2024, from $178 million to $573 million, while Russian transfers over that longer span rose only 26%, from $429 million to $542 million, once the war spike is averaged away.

The durable base was never Moscow. It was Milan, Athens, Berlin, New York and Tel Aviv. The 2022-23 Russian surge sat on top of that base and then left.

More Than a Million People Collect These Payments

Transfers do not count as GDP, but they fund consumption. The National Bank’s 2023 annual report said 1.257 million unique people received remittances between March and December 2023, more than a third of the population, with 313,000 to 346,000 collecting in a typical month. That is the household stake, and it is why a 19% national drop in 2024 was a political number as well as a balance-of-payments one.

HOW HEAVY THE HOUSEHOLD LOAD IS

• Share of the economy: World Bank figures put personal remittances at 11.17% of GDP in 2025, down from a 15.42% peak in 2022, 13.65% in 2023 and 11.87% in 2024.
• Who collects: 1.257 million unique recipients in March-December 2023, on the National Bank’s count, more than a third of Georgia’s population.
• Monthly pace: 313,000 to 346,000 people received a transfer in a typical month in that 2023 window.
• The current account: The deficit narrowed to 2.6% of GDP in 2025, helped by the 8.5% rebound in recorded transfers that year.

A 11.17% GDP share is still high by European standards. It is no longer the 15.42% wartime peak, and it is no longer a Russian peak. The people on the receiving end of Italian, Greek, German and US wages are the ones who now set the floor under household spending.

Reserves Hit $8.14 Billion Without Russian Inflows

The same August that Russia sent $5.07 million, the National Bank bought $555.6 million on the local dollar market. Officials said international reserves reached an all-time high of $8.14 billion. Net purchases for January-August 2026 were $3.12 billion. Gold holdings were 7.83 tonnes in June, after the bank’s recent bullion purchases.

GDP rose 6.3% year on year in August 2026. Tourism receipts and the Western transfer base still bring in dollars even when one Russian payment system goes dark. The 2024 19% slump in recorded transfers did not repeat in 2025, because the EU and the United States kept sending more.

If senders reroute around Zolotaya Korona, Russia’s line can rise from $5.07 million without restoring 2022. If they do not, August is the month the last wartime pipe closed, and the household story is the Italian, Greek, German, Israeli and US one that was already carrying the load.