Bush is due to meet Putin on Sunday in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.
The crash of 2008 left huge numbers of unsold holiday flats along the Black Sea coast.
The Kremlin worries about the future of its Black Sea fleet, should Ukraine get in.
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For now, the sole working route to Russia's Black Sea coast runs through Dagestan and Chechnya.
It has just agreed an extension of the Black Sea fleet's lease in Sebastopol, in Ukraine.
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And Bulgaria's oil refinery in Bourgas, on the Black Sea, could become a major supplier to Yugoslavia.
From the southern edge of the Caucasus mountains to the Black Sea, Georgia's landscape is spectacular and rugged.
Putin conducted the conversations by telephone from the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
In Russia in 2010 Chevron signed an exploration deal with Kremlin-controlled Rosneft to explore in the Black Sea region.
As the war raged on in the Caucasus, pro-Chechen gunmen hijacked a passenger ferry off Turkey's Black Sea coast.
More tourists are arriving as Bulgaria's scruffy Black Sea resorts, built as playgrounds for Soviet workers, are done up.
It will also coordinate the work of a group of NATO ships currently in the Black Sea, Interfax reported.
Israel was quick to blame Hezbollah and Iran for the bus bombing in Burgas, on Bulgaria's Black Sea coast.
Oil is piped from the Caspian Sea to ports in the Black Sea, increasing Russia's anxiety to maintain control.
Its leader, Aslan Abashidze, runs an odd and throughly autocratic mini-state, Ajaria, on the Black Sea border with Turkey.
The small, Soviet-designed AN-24 plane was carrying 45 people from the Black Sea port of Odessa, according to emergency officials.
Hotels, condos, a stadium and gleaming Olympic ice palaces are sprouting from the Black Sea coastal lowlands, uprooting residential neighborhoods.
That odd beach vendor chant is the sound of summer in the Crimea, a small Ukrainian peninsula that juts into the Black Sea.
But the bulk of this output is expected to flow through a new line running to Russia's Black Sea coast.
The July 2012 bombing at Burgas airport on the Black Sea coast was the deadliest attack on Israelis abroad since 2004.
It sits astride a Russian pipeline running from the oilfields of the Caspian Sea to the ports of the Black Sea.
The 30% discount on Russian gas Ukraine will enjoy following the Black Sea fleet deal will not reduce Naftogaz's hefty deficit.
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Over the years Gazprom has owned stakes in such things as a poultry farm and a resort on the Black Sea.
Depending on the results, exploration drilling could start as early as 2014 in the Black Sea and 2015 in the Kara Sea.
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Russia also continues to push South Stream, a Russian-backed Black Sea pipeline.
Its Black Sea fleet is not escorting Russian sanctions-busters into the Adriatic.
With a year to go before the 2014 Winter Games, much of the Black Sea city is still a mass of scaffolding.
The Black Sea area of Russia has been particularly hard hit, with at least 58 deaths over the course of the weekend.
Most of its fuel and much of its grain comes through Georgia's Black Sea ports, which have been paralysed by the war.
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Bulgaria, whose Black Sea resorts are a popular destination for Israelis, has not speculated on who may have been responsible for the attack.
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