Astrakhan

Astrakhan sits at the mouth of Russia's Caspian shipping corridor, the route Iran has increasingly used to move goods and oil around Western sanctions. That exposure was underlined when Ukraine struck an Iranian sailor at sea in the Caspian.

The city occupies eleven islands in the upper Volga delta, roughly 100km from the Caspian Sea, and sits 28 metres below sea level, the lowest city in Russia. A medieval settlement, Xacitarxan, was capital of the Astrakhan Khanate from 1459 until Ivan the Terrible captured it in 1556; a Kremlin fortress built in 1558 is traditionally taken as the founding date of the modern city. Through the 17th century it drew Armenian, Persian, Mughal Indian and Central Asian merchants and became known as Russia's gate to the Orient. It is now the administrative centre of Astrakhan Oblast, with a population of 475,629 at the 2021 census.

Astrakhan remains Russia's principal fish-processing centre and a rail-linked hub connecting Moscow to Central Asia and the Caucasus. Its centuries-old role as a trade gateway between Russia and Iran/Central Asia gives it disproportionate weight now that the two countries are leaning on Caspian shipping to route around sanctions.