Armenia’s foreign trade turnover fell off a cliff during the first four months of 2025 after the Kremlin changed the rules that govern Yerevan’s imports and exports of Russian gems and precious metals.

According to data published by the Arminfo news agency on June 9, Armenia’s overall trade volume amounted to $6.3 billion during the first four months of this year, a whopping 53 percent decline over the volume during the first-third of 2024. The decline is linked to a precipitous drop-off in the import and export of gems and precious metals, in particular diamonds and gold. 

Armenia imported $740 million in gems and precious metals during the first four months of 2025 against $863 million in exports. By comparison, for all of 2024, Armenia recorded $7.4 billion in gems/precious metals imports and around $8 billion in exports, accounting for roughly 50 percent of Armenia’s annual trade turnover amount of $30.2 billion.

Changes in Russian tariff policies within the context of the Eurasian Economic Union are widely seen as responsible for the dramatic shift in the Armenian import-export pattern. 

The comparatively low margin in the dollar amounts of imports and exports indicate that Armenia mainly served as a pass-through for the trade in gems/precious metals and did not add much value in terms of producing jewelry and other items using the raw materials. While helping to boost Armenian trade turnover totals, the large-scale importation of raw diamonds, gold and other precious stones and metals by Yerevan enabled Russia to generate income while evading sanctions.

The trend that saw trade in gems/precious metals start to dominate Armenian trade turnover began in 2022, the same year Russia launched its unprovoked attack on Ukraine. To date, the overwhelming share of Russian gems and precious metals imported by Armenia in recent years have been re-exported to the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong.

By Eurasianet.org 

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