Getting to Moscow: By ship

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Moscow used to be served by regular passenger ships. A system of navigable channels and locks connects the Moskva River with Volga River, which in turn, through the Volga-Baltic channel, provides a way to the Baltic Sea (using the Onega, Ladoga and Neva rivers) and further from Ladoga Lake through the White Sea channel to the White Sea; to the south through the Volga-Don channel to the Don river and the Azov and Black Sea; while Volga itself flows into the Caspian Sea. In the Soviet times this allowed the official propaganda to refer to Moscow as "a port on the five seas". There is no scheduled passenger traffic anymore on any of these routes.

There are 2 river terminals in Moscow, on each end of the series of major bridges over the river; these are not capable of being drawn up, and not all of them are of sufficient height to allow large ships to pass. The North Station, in Khimki neighborhood, provides berths for cruise ships to Saint Petersburg, as well as Astrakhan, Rostov-on-Don and other cities along the Volga. The South Station (closest Metro: Kolomenskaya) ceased to be used commercially, since the Oka River, of which the Moskva is a tributary, has silted to the point of being impassable.

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