Caspian Sea

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Caspian Sea
Russian Federation (specifically Astrakhan Oblast, Dagestan and Kalmykia)
Max. length1,030 km (640 mi)
Max. width435 km (270 mi)
Surface area371,000 km2 (143,200 sq mi)
Average depth211 m (690 ft)
Max. depth1,025 m (3,360 ft)
Water volume78,200 km3 (18,800 cu mi)
Residence time250 years
Shore length17,000 km (4,300 mi)
Surface elevation−28 m (−92 ft)
Islands26+
SettlementsBaku (Azerbaijan), Bandar-e Anzali (Iran), Aqtau (Kazakhstan), Makhachkala (Russia), Türkmenbaşy (Turkmenistan) (see article)
References[1]
1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure.

The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the world's largest lake and sometimes referred to as a full-fledged sea.[2][3][4] An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, west of the broad steppe of Central Asia, south of the fertile plains of Southern Russia in Eastern Europe, and north of the mountainous Iranian Plateau. It covers a surface area of 371,000 km2 (143,000 sq mi) (excluding the highly saline lagoon of Garabogazköl to its east), an area approximately equal to that of Japan, with a volume of 78,200 km3 (19,000 cu mi).[5] It has a salinity of approximately 1.2% (12 g/L), about a third of the salinity of average seawater. It is bounded by Kazakhstan to the northeast, Russia to the northwest, Azerbaijan to the southwest, Iran to the south, and Turkmenistan to the southeast.

The sea stretches 1,200 km (750 mi) from north to south, with an average width of 320 km (200 mi). Its gross coverage is 386,400 km2 (149,200 sq mi) and the surface is about 27 m (89 ft) below

inflow, Europe's longest river, the Volga, enters at the shallow north end. Two deep basins form its central and southern zones. These lead to horizontal differences in temperature, salinity, and ecology. The seabed in the south reaches 1,023 m (3,356 ft) below sea level, which is the second-lowest natural non-oceanic depression on Earth after Lake Baikal
(−1,180 m or −3,870 ft).

Written accounts from the ancient inhabitants of its coast perceived the Caspian Sea as an ocean, probably because of its salinity and large size. With a surface area of 371,000 square kilometres (143,000 sq mi), the Caspian Sea is nearly five times as big as

global warming and the process of desertification, causing an ecocide.[7][8][9]

Etymology

The sea's name stems from

Caspian Gates, part of Iran's Tehran province, may evince such people migrated to the south. The Iranian city of Qazvin shares the root of its name with this common name for the sea. The traditional and medieval Arabic name for the sea was Baḥr ('sea') Khazar, but in recent centuries the common and standard name in Arabic language has become بحر قزوين Baḥr Qazvin, the Arabized form of Caspian.[12] In modern Russian language, it is known as Russian: Каспи́йское мо́ре, Kaspiyskoye more.[13]

Some Turkic ethnic groups refer to it with the Caspi(an) descriptor; in

Kazakh it is called Каспий теңізі, Kaspiy teñizi, Kyrgyz: Каспий деңизи, romanized: Kaspiy deñizi, Uzbek: Kaspiy dengizi. Others refer to it as the Khazar sea: Turkmen: Hazar deňizi; Azerbaijani: Xəzər dənizi, Turkish: Hazar denizi. In all these the first word refers to the historical Khazar Khaganate, a large empire based to the north of the Caspian Sea between the 7th and 10th centuries.[citation needed
]

In Iran, the lake is referred to as the Mazandaran Sea (

Mazandaran Province at its southern shores.[14]

Old Russian sources use the Khvalyn or Khvalis Sea (Хвалынское море / Хвалисское море) after the name of

Khwarezmia.[15]

Among Greeks and Persians in classical antiquity it was the Hyrcanian ocean.[16]

Renaissance European maps labelled it as the Abbacuch Sea (Oronce Fine's 1531 world map), Mar de Bachu (Ortellius' 1570 map), or Mar de Sala (the Mercator 1569 world map).

It was also sometimes called the Kumyk Sea[17] and Tarki Sea[18] (derived from the name of the Kumyks and their historical capital Tarki).

Basin countries

Border countries

North

South

Non-border countries

Physical characteristics

Formation

cetaceans and pinnipeds
.

The Caspian Sea is at its South Caspian Basin, like the

brackish toward the south. It is most saline on the Iranian shore, where the catchment basin contributes little flow.[22] Currently, the mean salinity of the Caspian is one third that of Earth's oceans. The Garabogazköl lagoon, which dried up when water flow from the main body of the Caspian was blocked in the 1980s but has since been restored, routinely exceeds oceanic salinity by a factor of 10.[23]

Geography

Area around the Caspian Sea. Yellow area indicates the (approximate) drainage area.

The Caspian Sea is the largest inland body of water in the world by area and accounts for 40–44% of the total lake waters of the world,

Apsheron Threshold, a sill of tectonic origin between the Eurasian continent and an oceanic remnant,[26] that runs through Zhiloi Island and Cape Kuuli.[27]
The Garabogazköl Bay is the saline eastern inlet of the Caspian, which is part of Turkmenistan and at times has been a lake in its own right due to the isthmus that cuts it off from the Caspian.

Differences between the three regions are dramatic. The Northern Caspian only includes the Caspian shelf,[28] and is very shallow; it accounts for less than 1% of the total water volume with an average depth of only 5–6 m (16–20 ft). The sea noticeably drops off towards the Middle Caspian, where the average depth is 190 m (620 ft).[27] The Southern Caspian is the deepest, with oceanic depths of over 1,000 m (3,300 ft), greatly exceeding the depth of other regional seas, such as the Persian Gulf. The Middle and Southern Caspian account for 33% and 66% of the total water volume, respectively.[25] The northern portion of the Caspian Sea typically freezes in the winter, and in the coldest winters ice forms in the south as well.[29]

Over 130 rivers provide inflow to the Caspian, the

biomes to both the north and east are characterized by cold, continental deserts. Conversely, the climate to the southwest and south are generally warm with uneven elevation due to a mix of highlands and mountain ranges; the drastic changes in climate alongside the Caspian have led to a great deal of biodiversity in the region.[23]

The Caspian Sea has numerous islands near the coasts, but none in the deeper parts of the sea.

Tyuleniy Archipelago, an Important Bird Area
(IBA).

Climate

The climate of the Caspian Sea is variable, with the

cold semi-arid climate (BSk), and humid continental climate (Dsa, Dfa) being present in the northern portions of the Caspian Sea, while the Mediterranean climate (Csa) and humid subtropical climate
(Cfa) are present in the southern portions of the Caspian Sea.

Hydrology

Caspian Sea near Aktau, Mangystau Region, Kazakhstan

The Caspian has characteristics common to both seas and lakes. It is often listed as the world's largest lake, although it is not

freshwater: the 1.2% salinity classes it with brackish water
bodies.

It contains about 3.5 times as much water, by volume, as all five of North America's

eustatic
level of the world's oceans.

The sea level of the Caspian has fallen and risen, often rapidly, many times over the centuries. Some Russian historians[

Atil, to flood. In 2004, the water level was 28 m (92 ft) below sea level
.

Over the centuries, Caspian Sea levels have changed in synchrony with the estimated discharge of the Volga, which in turn depends on rainfall levels in its vast catchment basin. Precipitation is related to variations in the amount of North Atlantic depressions that reach the interior, and they in turn are affected by cycles of the North Atlantic oscillation. Thus levels in the Caspian Sea relate to atmospheric conditions in the North Atlantic, thousands of kilometres to the northwest.[30]

The last short-term sea-level cycle started with a sea-level fall of 3 m (10 ft) from 1929 to 1977, followed by a rise of 3 m (10 ft) from 1977 until 1995. Since then smaller oscillations have taken place.[31]

A study by the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences estimated that the level of the sea was dropping by more than six centimetres per year due to increased evaporation due to rising temperatures caused by climate change.[32]

Environmental degradation

The

UN Environment Programme warns that the Caspian "suffers from an enormous burden of pollution from oil extraction and refining, offshore oil fields, radioactive wastes from nuclear power plants and huge volumes of untreated sewage and industrial waste introduced mainly by the Volga River".[32]

The magnitude of fossil fuel extraction and transport activity in the Caspian also poses a risk to the environment. The island of Vulf off Baku, for example, has suffered ecological damage as a result of the petrochemical industry; this has significantly decreased the number of species of marine birds in the area. Existing and planned oil and gas pipelines under the sea further increase the potential threat to the environment.[33]

The high concentration of mud volcanoes under the Caspian Sea were thought to be the cause of a fire that broke out 75 kilometers from Baku on July 5, 2021. The State oil company of Azerbaijan SOCAR said preliminary information indicated it was a mud volcano which spewed both mud and flammable gas.[34]

It is calculated that during the 21st century, the water level of the Caspian Sea will decrease by 9–18 m (30–60 ft) due to the acceleration of evaporation due to

global warming and the process of desertification, causing an ecocide.[7][8][9][35]

On October 23, 2021, Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed the Protocol for the Protection of the Caspian Sea against Pollution from Land-based Sources in order to ensure better protection for the biodiversity of the Caspian Sea.[36]

Flora and fauna

Flora

Caspian Hyrcanian mixed forests are maintained by moisture captured from the Caspian Sea by the Alborz Mountain Range
.

The rising level of the Caspian Sea between 1995 and 1996 reduced the number of habitats for rare species of aquatic vegetation. This has been attributed to a general lack of seeding material in newly formed coastal lagoons and water bodies.[37][38]

Many rare and endemic plant species of Russia are associated with the

Samur River delta. The shoreline is also a unique refuge for plants adapted to the loose sands of the Central Asian Deserts. The principal limiting factors to successful establishment of plant species are hydrological imbalances within the surrounding deltas, water pollution
, and various land reclamation activities. The water level change within the Caspian Sea is an indirect reason for which plants may not get established.

These affect aquatic plants of the Volga Delta, such as

Tertiary period.[39]

Since 2019

Mazandaran, Iran as World Heritage Site under category (ix).[40]

Fauna

Most tadpole gobies (Benthophilus) are found only in the Caspian Sea basin.[41]

The

endemic to the Caspian Sea, being one of very few seal species that live in inland waters, but it is different from those inhabiting freshwaters due to the hydrological environment of the sea. A century ago the Caspian was home to more than one million seals. Today, fewer than 10% remain.[32]

Archeological studies of

last glacial period or antiquity due to historic marine inflow between the current Caspian Sea and either the Arctic Ocean or North Sea, or the Black Sea. This is supported by the existences of current endemic, oceanic species such as lagoon cockles which was genetically identified to originate in the Caspian and Black Seas regions.[42][45]

The sea's

European weatherfish, wels catfish, northern pike, burbot, European perch and zander.[41] Almost 30 non-indigenous, introduced fish species have been reported from the Caspian Sea, but only a few have become established.[41]

Six sturgeon species, the Russian, bastard, Persian, sterlet, starry and beluga, are native to the Caspian Sea.[41] The last of these is arguably the largest freshwater fish in the world. The sturgeon yield roe (eggs) that are processed into caviar. Overfishing has depleted a number of the historic fisheries.[46] In recent years, overfishing has threatened the sturgeon population to the point that environmentalists advocate banning sturgeon fishing completely until the population recovers. The high price of sturgeon caviar – more than 1,500 Azerbaijani manats[32] (US$880 as of April 2019) per kilo – allows fishermen to afford bribes to ensure the authorities look the other way, making regulations in many locations ineffective.[47] Caviar harvesting further endangers the fish stocks, since it targets reproductive females.

Illustration of two Caspian tigers, extinct in the region since the 1970s

spur-thighed tortoise (Testudo graeca buxtoni) and Horsfield's tortoise
.

History

Geology

A map of the Caspian Sea in the mid-1700s
A New and Accurate Map of the Caspian Sea by the Soskam Sabbus & Emanuel Bowen, 1747
Lake Aral. A recession of Lake Akchagyl completed stage one.[50]

The 17th-century Cossack rebel and pirate Stenka Razin, on a raid in the Caspian (Vasily Surikov, 1906)

Early settlement nearby

The earliest hominid remains found around the Caspian Sea are from

Lower Palaeolithic human occupation south of the Caspian from western Alburz. These are Ganj Par and Darband Cave
sites.

Ancient Greek: θάλασσα).[54]

Hafiz-i Abru, a fourteenth century Timurid Empire geographer, has recorded that the destruction of Oxus river dam and irrigation works which diverting the river flow towards Caspian sea, has caused Aral sea to nearly disappeared.[55][56]

Chinese maximal limit

Later, in the Tang dynasty (618–907), the sea was the western limit of the Chinese Empire.[57][58][dubious – discuss]

Fossil fuel

The area is rich in

fossil fuels. Oil wells were being dug in the region as early as the 10th century to reach oil "for use in everyday life, both for medicinal purposes and for heating and lighting in homes".[59] By the 16th century, Europeans were aware of the rich oil and gas deposits locally. English traders Thomas Bannister and Jeffrey Duckett described the area around Baku as "a strange thing to behold, for there issueth out of the ground a marvelous quantity of oil, which serveth all the country to burn in their houses. This oil is black and is called nefte. There is also by the town of Baku, another kind of oil which is white and very precious [i.e., petroleum]."[60]

Today, oil and gas platforms abound along the edges of the sea.[61]

Geography, geology and navigation studies

During the rule of

Fedor I. Soimonov was a pioneering explorer of the sea. He was a hydrographer who charted and greatly expanded knowledge of the sea. He drew a set of four maps and wrote Pilot of the Caspian Sea, the first lengthy report and modern maps. These were published in 1720 by the Russian Academy of Sciences.[62]

Cities

Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, is the largest city by the Caspian Sea.

Ancient

Modern

Dagestan
, is the third-largest city on the Caspian Sea.

Economy

Oil pipelines in the Caspian region. September 2002

Countries in the Caspian region, particularly

world energy markets were influenced by Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, as they became strategically crucial in this sphere, thus attracting the largest share of foreign direct investment
(FDI).

All of the countries are rich in solar energy and harnessing potential, with the highest rainfall much less than the mountains of central Europe in the mountains of the west, which are also rich in hydroelectricity sources.

Iran has high fossil fuel energy potential. It has reserves of 137.5 billion barrels of crude oil, the fourth largest in the world, producing around four million barrels a day. Iran has an estimated 988.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, around 16 percent of world reserves, thus key to current paradigms in global energy security.[63]

natural gas globally.[66]

Caspian

littoral states join efforts to develop infrastructure, tourism and trade in the region. The first Caspian Economic Forum was convened on August 12, 2019, in Turkmenistan and brought together representatives of Kazakhstan, Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran and that state. It hosted several meetings of their ministers of economy and transport.[67]

The Caspian countries develop robust cooperation in the tech and digital field as part of the Caspian Digital Hub. The project helps expand data transmission capabilities in Kazakhstan as well as data transit capabilities between Asia and Europe. The project generated interest from investors from all over the world, including the UK.[68]

Oil and gas

Oil production using drilling platform, on the offshore of Turkmenistan
Drilling platform "Iran Khazar" in use at a Dragon Oil production platform in the Cheleken field (Turkmenistan)

The Caspian Sea region presently is a significant, but not major, supplier of

barrels per day plus natural gas liquids in 2001, 1.9% of total world output. More than a dozen countries output more than this top figure. Caspian region production has been higher, but waned during and after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Kazakhstan accounts for 55% and Azerbaijan for about 20% of the states' oil output.[69]

Caspian region oil and natural gas infrastructure. August 2013.

The world's first offshore wells and machine-drilled wells were made in Bibi-Heybat Bay, near

Baku, Azerbaijan. In 1873, exploration and development of oil began in some of the largest fields known to exist in the world at that time on the Absheron Peninsula near the villages of Balakhanli, Sabunchi
, Ramana, and Bibi Heybat. Total recoverable reserves were more than 500 million tons. By 1900, Baku had more than 3,000 oil wells, 2,000 of which were producing at industrial levels. By the end of the 19th century, Baku became known as the "black gold capital", and many skilled workers and specialists flocked to the city.

By the beginning of the 20th century, Baku was the center of the international oil industry. In 1920, when the Bolsheviks captured Azerbaijan, all private property, including oil wells and factories, was confiscated. Rapidly the republic's oil industry came under the control of the Soviet Union. By 1941, Azerbaijan was producing a record 23.5 million tons of oil per year – its Baku region output was nearly 72 percent of the Soviet Union's oil.[59]

In 1994, the "

Contract of the Century" was signed, heralding extra-regional development of the Baku oil fields. The large Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline conveys Azeri oil to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan
and opened in 2006.

The Vladimir Filanovsky [ru] oil field in the Russian section of the body of water was discovered in 2005. It is reportedly the largest found in 25 years. It was announced in October 2016 that Lukoil would start production from it.[70]

Transport

Don Canal, and the Don–Sea of Azov. A northern alternate is the Volga–Baltic (a sea which has a connection to the North Sea of the Atlantic, as the White Sea does via the White Sea-Baltic canal). Baku Sea Trade Port and Caspian Shipping Company CJSC, have a big role in the sea transportation of Azerbaijan. The Caspian Sea Shipping Company CJSC has two fleets plus shipyards. Its transport fleet has 51 vessels: 20 tankers, 13 ferries, 15 universal dry cargo vessels, 2 Ro-Ro vessels, as well as 1 technical vessel and 1 floating workshop. Its specialized fleet has 210 vessels: 20 cranes, 25 towing and supplying vehicles, 26 passenger, two pipe-laying, six fire-fighting, seven engineering-geological, two diving and 88 auxiliary vessels.[71]

The Caspian Sea Shipping Company of Azerbaijan, which acts as a liaison in the Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia (TRACECA), simultaneously with the transportation of cargo and passengers in the Trans-Caspian direction, also performs work to fully ensure the processes of oil and gas production at sea. In the 19th century, the sharp increase in oil production in Baku gave a huge impetus to the development of shipping in the Caspian Sea, and as a result, there was a need to create fundamentally new floating facilities for the transportation of oil and oil products.[72]

Political issues

Many of the islands along the Azerbaijani coast retain great geopolitical and economic importance for demarcation-line oil fields relying on their national status.

Nargin, which is still used as a former Soviet base and is the largest island in the Baku
bay, hold oil reserves.

The collapse of the Soviet Union allowed the market opening of the region. This led to intense investment and development by international oil companies. In 1998, Dick Cheney commented that "I can't think of a time when we've had a region emerge as suddenly to become as strategically significant as the Caspian."[73]

A key problem to further local development is arriving at precise, agreed demarcation lines among the five

littoral
states. The current disputes along Azerbaijan's maritime borders with Turkmenistan and Iran could impinge future development.

Much controversy currently exists over the proposed Trans-Caspian oil and gas pipelines. These projects would allow Western markets easier access to Kazakh oil and, potentially, Uzbek and Turkmen gas as well. Russia officially opposes the project on environmental grounds.[74] However, analysts note that the pipelines would bypass Russia completely, thereby denying the country valuable transit fees, as well as destroying its current monopoly on westward-bound hydrocarbon exports from the region.[74] Recently, both Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan have expressed their support for the Trans-Caspian Pipeline.[75]

Leaked U.S. diplomatic cables revealed that BP covered up a gas leak and blowout incident in September 2008 at an operating gas field in the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshi area of the Azerbaijan Caspian Sea.[76][77]

Territorial status

Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan

Coastline

Five states are located along about 4,800 km (3,000 mi) of Caspian coastline. The length of the coastline of these countries:[78]

  1. Kazakhstan - 1,422 km (884 mi)
  2. Turkmenistan - 1,035 km (643 mi)
  3. Azerbaijan - 813 km (505 mi)
  4. Russia - 747 km (464 mi)
  5. Iran - 728 km (452 mi)

Negotiations

In 2000, negotiations as to the

landlocked states of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan. This concerns Russia as more traffic seeks to use – and at some points congest – its inland waterways
. If the body of water is, by law, a sea, many precedents and international treaties oblige free access to foreign vessels. If it is a lake there are no such obligations.

Resolving and improving some

environmental issues properly rests on the status and borders
issue.

All five Caspian littoral states maintain naval forces on the sea.[80]

According to a treaty signed between Iran and the Soviet Union, the sea is technically a lake and was divided into two sectors (Iranian and Soviet), but the resources (then mainly fish) were commonly shared. The line between the two sectors was considered an international border in a common lake, like Lake Albert. The Soviet sector was sub-divided into the four littoral republics' administrative sectors.

Russia, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan have bilateral agreements with each other based on

oil fields
. Occasionally, Iranian patrol boats have fired at vessels sent by Azerbaijan for exploration into the disputed region. There are similar tensions between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan (the latter claims that the former has pumped more oil than agreed from a field, recognized by both parties as shared).

The Caspian littoral states' meeting in 2007 signed an accord that only allows littoral-state flag-bearing ships to enter the sea.[81][failed verification]

Negotiations among the five states ebbed and flowed, from about 1990 to 2018. Progress was notable in the fourth Caspian Summit held in Astrakhan in 2014.[82]

Caspian Summit

The Caspian Summit is a head of state-level meeting of the five littoral states.[83] The fifth Caspian Summit took place on August 12, 2018, in the Kazakh port city of Aktau.[83] The five leaders signed the 'Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea'.[84]

Representatives of the Caspian littoral states held a meeting in the capital of Kazakhstan on September 28, 2018, as a follow-up to the Aktau Summit. The conference was hosted by the Kazakh Ministry of Investment and Development. The participants in the meeting agreed to host an investment forum for the Caspian region every two years.[85]

Convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea

Main article: Convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea

The five littoral states build consensus on legally binding governance of the Caspian Sea through Special Working Groups of a Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea.[86] In advance of a Caspian Summit, the 51st Special Working Group took place in Astana in May 2018 and found consensus on multiple agreements: Agreements on cooperation in the field of transport; trade and economic cooperation; prevention of incidents on the sea; combating terrorism; fighting against organized crime; and border security cooperation.[87]

The convention grants jurisdiction over 24 km (15 mi) of territorial waters to each neighboring country, plus an additional 16 km (10 mi) of exclusive fishing rights on the surface, while the rest is international waters. The seabed, on the other hand, remains undefined, subject to bilateral agreements between countries. Thus, the Caspian Sea is legally neither fully a sea nor a lake.[88]

While the convention addresses caviar production, oil and gas extraction, and military uses, it does not touch on environmental issues.[32]

Crossborder inflow

UNECE recognizes several rivers that cross international borders which flow into the Caspian Sea.[89]
These are:

River Countries
Atrek River
 Iran, Turkmenistan
Kura River
 Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Turkey
Ural River
 Kazakhstan, Russia
Samur River
 Azerbaijan, Russia
Sulak River
 Georgia, Russia
Terek River
 Georgia, Russia

Transportation

Although the Caspian Sea is

endorheic, its main tributary, the Volga, is connected by important shipping canals with the Don River (and thus the Black Sea) and with the Baltic Sea, with branch canals to Northern Dvina and to the White Sea
.

Another Caspian tributary, the

Kuma River, is connected by an irrigation canal
with the Don basin as well.

Scheduled ferry services (including train ferries) across the sea chiefly are between:

Canals

As an

Don River (which flows into the Sea of Azov) and various rivers that flow into the Baltic Sea. Primitive canals
connecting the Volga Basin with the Baltic were constructed as early as the early 18th century. Since then, a number of canal projects have been completed.

The two modern canal systems that connect the Volga Basin, and hence the Caspian Sea, with the ocean are the Volga–Baltic Waterway and the Volga–Don Canal.

The proposed

Kama River into the Volga. The goals were both irrigation and the stabilization of the water level in the Caspian, which was thought to be falling dangerously fast at the time. During 1971, some peaceful nuclear construction experiments
were carried out in the region by the U.S.S.R.

In June 2007, in order to boost his oil-rich country's access to markets, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed a 700 km (435 mi) link between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea. It is hoped that the "Eurasia Canal" (Manych Ship Canal) would transform landlocked Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries into maritime states, enabling them to significantly increase trade volume. Although the canal would traverse Russian territory, it would benefit Kazakhstan through its Caspian Sea ports. The most likely route for the canal, the officials at the Committee on Water Resources at Kazakhstan's Agriculture Ministry say, would follow the Kuma–Manych Depression, where currently a chain of rivers and lakes is already connected by an irrigation canal (the Kuma–Manych Canal). Upgrading the Volga–Don Canal would be another option.[90]

See also

References

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