On Tuesday Russian President Dmitry Medvedev posted a new entry on his video blog to report sending a letter to his Ukrainian counterpart where he called Ukraine’s policy under President Yushchenko a divergence from the principle of developing friendship and partnership with Russia.

President Medvedev also added that he decided to refrain from sending a new Russian ambassador to Ukraine.

Deputy Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council Dmytro Vydrin believes that it is Ukrainian and Russian political institutions that bear responsibility for the deteriorated relations between Kiev and Moscow.

“The relations are at a low. There have been no top-level meetings, with almost all joint projects frozen. If one analyzes the bilateral cooperation in specific areas, one will find grave shortcomings. The political structures are to blame for this,” Vydrin said.  

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev proposed a discussion of bilateral economic ties with German Chancellor Angela Merkel as they prepared to begin talks in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Friday.

In opening remarks at his official Black Sea residence, Medvedev praised Germany’s moves to tackle the global economic slump. The country’s state statistics body said on Thursday that German GDP grew 0.3% in the second quarter on the first quarter against a forecast decline of 0.2%.

Medvedev told Merkel that Russia was also working to improve its economic performance.  

The Russian frigate Ladny is heading toward Cape Verde in the western Atlantic in search of the missing Arctic Sea cargo vessel, the Russian ambassador in Cape Verde said on Friday.

The Arctic Sea, which is operated by Solchart Arkhangelsk Ltd and has a 15-member Russian crew on board, is feared to have been hijacked. It was last reported by German media to be traced to an area northwest of the island of Santo Antao, Cape Verde’s second-largest port.

“I have a report from the Russian Navy that the frigate is going to enter Cape Verde territorial waters,” Alexander Karpushin told the Russian News Service. “The warship has its own search plan.”  

Russia’s top investigation committee announced on Friday that the number of Russian service personnel killed during the brief military conflict with Georgia in August last year now stands at 67.

Previous official reports said the death toll in the “five-day war” between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia was 64 Russian military personnel.

“In addition, as a result of the Georgian attack on Tskhinvali and other towns in South Ossetia 655 residential buildings were completely destroyed or set on fire and 2,139 houses were damaged,” said Vladimir Markin, an official spokesman for Russia’s Investigation Committee under the Prosecutor General’s Office.  

The situation in the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict zone rapidly deteriorated after Tskhinval and a number of other residential districts and villages in South Ossetia were attacked in the evening of August 1. Combat with the use of small arms, grenade launchers and mortars ensued in the conflict zone for several hours. It resulted in the first human losses and substantial destruction. South Ossetia began evacuating its citizens to North Ossetia. In the first two days after the shelling, 2,500 residents left their homes.

On August 2, South Ossetia was visited by the Georgian Minister for Reintegration Temur Yakobashvili. After meeting with representatives of the OSCE mission of observers, Commander of Georgia’s Defense Ministry Joint Headquarters of Peacekeeping Operations Mamuka Kurashvili and Commander of the Joint Peacekeeping Force (JPF) General Marat Kulakhmetov, he said that the Georgian authorities did not see an alternative to direct negotiations between Tbilisi and Tskhinval, and expressed readiness for holding talks without any preconditions. Yakobashvili said that Tbilisi will do all it can for reaching political settlement.