Three stories out today about Lexus sales, and rather than post them all separately, I thought to just combine them.

First up, Toyota president Katsuaki Watanabe still expects to see a slight increase in 2008 sales over 2007, despite the recent downturn in sales. This makes for a large uphill battle, though, as Lexus sales were down almost 10% in both January and February.

This downward trend isn’t worldwide though, as sales in the United Arab Emirates as surged, with a whopping 68% increase in 2007 over 2006. This was mostly attributed to the release of the LS 460, and now with the LX 570 making its debut, Lexus is forecasting another 40% jump in 2008.

This leads right into the last story, where Russians are buying Lexus after Lexus, accounting for a quarter of all European sales in 2007. Again, with the addition of the LX 570, Russia is expected to replace Britain as the company’s largest European market by the end of this year.