Not so long ago, Astrakhan's fish market glistened with heaps of affordable fresh caviar -- sturgeon's gooey black eggs, often called "black gold."

But these days, the only caviar legally available there is from government-regulated fish farms. There aren't a lot of them and they don't come near to meeting Russian and world demand for caviar -- even at a whopping $1,000 to $2,000 per kilogram on the official market.

The economic decline is reflected in the crumbling one-story wooden buildings that still make up much of the city center.