Arkhangelsk Oblast the main shipyard for the Russian Navy. Among the oldest populated places of the oblast are Kholmogory, Kargopol, and Solvychegodsk; there are a number of Russian Orthodox monasteries, including the Antoniev Siysky Monastery and the World Heritage Site of the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea. Plesetsk Cosmodrome is one of three spaceports in Russia (the other two are Kapustin Yar in Astrakhan Oblast and Yasny in Orenburg Oblast). Arkhangelsk Oblast, which includes Nenets Autonomous Okrug, borders Kirov Oblast, Vologda Oblast, the Republic of Karelia, the Komi Republic, and the White, Pechora, Barents and Kara seas. Cape Fligely in Franz
Astrakhan Astrakhan Astrakhan () is a city in southern Russia and the administrative center of Astrakhan Oblast. The city lies on two banks of the Volga River, close to where it discharges into the Caspian Sea at an altitude of below sea level. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 520,339; up from 504,501 recorded in the 2002 Census and 509,210 recorded in the 1989 Census. The oldest economic and cultural center of the Lower Volga, it is often called the southernmost outpost of Russia and the Caspian capital. The city is a member of the Eurasian Regional Office of