page_title: Closed city
section_title: Kazakhstan
hierarchical_section_title: Closed city / Closed cities in post-Soviet states / Kazakhstan
caption_attribution_description: English: The city of Baikonur, Kazakhstan, is seen from the aircraft carrying astronaut Leroy Chiao, Expedition 10 commander and NASA International Space Station (ISS) science officer, cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov, Russia’s Federal Space Agency flight engineer and Soyuz commander, and Russian Space Forces cosmonaut Yuri Shargin. The crew will prepare for their launch on the Soyuz TMA-5 spacecraft October 14, 2004, to the ISS.
context_page_description: A closed city or closed town is a settlement where travel or residency restrictions are applied so that specific authorization is required to visit or remain overnight. They may be sensitive military establishments or secret research installations that require much more space or freedom than is available in a conventional military base. There may also be a wider variety of permanent residents including close family members of workers or trusted traders who are not directly connected with its clandestine purposes.
  Many closed cities existed in the Soviet Union until its collapse in 1991. After 1991, a number of them still existed in the CIS countries, especially Russia. In modern Russia, such places are officially known as "closed administrative-territorial formations".
context_section_description: Baikonur, a town close to the spaceport facility of the same name in Kazakhstan, which is rented and administered by Russia. Non-resident visitors will need pre-approval from the Russian authorities to visit both the town of Baikonur itself and the Cosmodrome. Note that said approval is completely separate from just having a Russian visa. Some tourism organisations in Kazakhstan provide services in organising trips to visit Baikonur and the museums contained there.
  Priozersk, Kazakhstan
caption: An aerial view of Baikonur, Kazakhstan
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