Azov was a Kara-class

Kara class cruiser

The Kara is a class of Cold War era Soviet guided missile cruisers. The Soviet designation is Project 1134B Berkut B - Беркут Б and the Soviet mission description is "large anti-submarine warfare ship" and not "cruiser".-Design:...

 missile cruiser

Cruiser

A cruiser is a type of warship. The term has been in use for several hundreds of years, and has had different meanings throughout this period...

 of the Soviet

Soviet Navy

The Soviet Navy was the naval arm of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy would have played an instrumental role in a Warsaw Pact war with NATO, where it would have attempted to prevent naval convoys from bringing reinforcements across the Atlantic Ocean...

 and later Russian Navy.

History

Azov was laid down on 21 July 1972, launched on 14 September 1973 and was commissioned on 25 December 1975. The ship was stationed in the Black Sea Fleet

Black Sea Fleet

The Black Sea Fleet is a large operational-strategic sub-unit of the Russian Navy, operating in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea since the late 18th century. It is based in various harbors of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov....

. In 1977 the ship was modified to carry the new S-300F (SA-N-6) anti-air missile complex.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

the ship became a part of the new Russian Navy. There the cruiser served until 1998, when the ship was decommissioned and scrapped in 2000.