Russia remained the top destination for money transfers from Kazakhstan via transfer systems in January–May 2026, with 97.8 billion tenge sent during the period, reports the website infohub.kz.
Russia continues to be the largest recipient of remittances from Kazakhstan through money transfer systems. In the first five months of this year, 97.8 billion tenge were transferred to Russia — up 15.8% from the same period last year. As a result, Russia's share of total outbound transfers rose from 32.9% to 41.1%.
Uzbekistan remained the second-largest destination, but transfers there fell sharply. Kazakhs sent 50.2 billion tenge, down 26.7% year-on-year, reducing Uzbekistan's share from 26.7% to 21.1%.
Turkey was third, with transfers dropping 22.7% to 38.7 billion tenge, lowering its share from 19.5% to 16.3%.
The declines to Uzbekistan and Turkey were the main drivers of the overall drop in international transfers. Combined, transfers to these two countries fell by 29.7 billion tenge year-on-year. Together, Russia, Uzbekistan and Turkey accounted for 78.5% of all international transfers sent via money transfer systems.
Other destinations saw smaller changes. Transfers to Georgia remained nearly flat at 15.6 billion tenge. Kyrgyzstan received 7.5 billion tenge (down 13.5%), China 5.9 billion tenge (down 16.3%), Armenia 4.3 billion tenge (up 16.4%), and South Korea 2.6 billion tenge (up 12.5%). Transfers to Azerbaijan and Tajikistan remained roughly unchanged, while all other destinations combined saw a 6.6% drop to 8.4 billion tenge.