The Akhtuba (Russian: А́хтуба) is a left distributary of the Volga in southern Russia.
The Akhtuba splits off the Volga shortly before the city of Volgograd, and flows toward the Volga Delta and Caspian Sea. The old beginning of Akhtuba was blocked by the dam of the Volga Hydroelectric Station; now it flows from the Volga via an artificial outtake canal 6.5 kilometres long that starts below the dam. The river is 537 kilometres long; the average water flow is 153 cubic metres per second.
