It turns out that last week's reports of a deal between Germany's Lufthansa airlines and Russian transportation authorities to move the carrier's cargo operations to Siberia is not a done deal. According to Reuters, German officials are saying on Friday that Lufthansa's flyover rights have been extended to February while Russians and Germans work out a longer-term agreement. Just one big catch: The Russian side told Reuters they were only studying the proposal.

Maybe a sigh of relief at Ford Motor. Bloomberg quoted Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska as saying today that his investment in Canada's Magna International will be all he needs to expand his auto company. While Deripaska was shopping earlier this year for add-ons for his company, Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod (which is also known as OAO GAZ), there were rumors that he could be in the market to buy Ford.

Tech publications are focused on the disappearance of a group of Russian computer hackers. According to ComputerWorld, the group, known as the Russian Business Network, had quit Russia early this week for China. But by week's end the group had abandoned its presence in China as well. The tech reports say that RBN's clients include spammers, hackers, identity thieves and other ne'er-do-wells. Separately, Microsoft is expanding its efforts to undercut open-source software in Russia by selling its products at rock-bottom prices. ZDNet reported, quoting a Russian tech publication, that Microsoft is selling a Windows XP/Microsoft Office bundle for $3 a copy.

Strange goings on in the Russian tennis world. Star player Nikolay Davydenko is being investigated by the Association of Tennis Professionals. According to the Agence France Presse newswire, ATP is looking into suspicious betting during a match he played in Poland in August. AFP says that Davydenko is laughing off the probe. Separately, the BBC is reporting that the International Tennis Federation is probing claims by a German tennis player that his doubles partner was poisoned during a Davis Cup match in Russia. But the German tennis organization said Thursday that it saw no evidence to support the claim that Tommy Haas was poisoned.

And finally, on Thursday, Russia's highest court declined to rule that Russia's last tsar and his family were victims of political repression. The Supreme Court upheld rulings by lower courts that the 1918 killing of the Tsar Nicholas II, his wife and children was premeditated murder, not a political reprisal. According to the Associated Press, lawyers for descendants of the Romanov family called the ruling "illegal".

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