Early in the week, Russian authorities announced 10 arrests in the murder of a Russian newspaper reporter last October. But the government's contention--that someone outside Russia had ordered the murder of Anna Politkovskaya--was met with a large amount of skepticism in and out of Russia, according to news reports. And on Friday. Both the BBC and Voice of America were reporting that two of the suspects had already been released. Politkovskaya had been sharply critical of President Vladimir Putin and his policies.

Russia's billionaires have, over the years, spent large chunks of their cash on mansions, yachts and sports teams. And this week, Alisher Usmanov, who ranked 142 on Forbes' list of the world's richest people with a net worth of $5.5. billion, bought a 14.58% stake in the British soccer team Arsenal. Roman Abramovich, who was orphaned as a child and is now Russia's richest man (his fortune is estimated at ($18.7 billion), has owned rival Chelsea for several years.

Another billionaire, Mikhail Gutseriyev, was also in the news. He quit his job as CEO of the oil company Russneft and fled to London on Monday, where he asserted that he had been persecuted in Russia. On Friday, Russian authorities issued an international arrest warrant for Gutseriyev. He was number 314 on the Forbes list, with a $2.9 billion fortune.

Meanwhile, Russia's first deputy prime minister issued a call for consolidation in the Russian fishing industry. According to the ITAR-TASS news service, Sergei Ivanov said there are now several thousand companies operating, but there should be no more than 20 or 30.

AllofMP3 is singing a different tune. Russia shut the cut-price Internet music site in July under pressure from the U.S., which asserted that AllofMP3 was violating music companies' intellectual property rights. But a Russian court quickly cleared the company's founder of intellectual property theft and last weekend, the site signaled its intention to reopen. Friday, U.S. trade officials warned Russia the U.S. would not support Russia's membership in the World Trade Organization if intellectual property rights continued to be violated.

And finally, some news that might interest those of you headed to the Russian Far East for an adoption: Khabarovsk was declared the "most comfortable" city in Russia. According to ITAR-TASS, Krasnoyarsk and Saransk (the capital of the Republic of Mordovia) shared second place, while Tyumen and Anadyr (capital of the Chukotka Autonomous Area) came third. The news report did not say what comfort criteria were considered in the rankings.