British investigators are trying to figure out the whereabouts of a businessman who may have been traveling with one Dimitri Kovtun, the latter now under investigation by German authorities for his possible role in trafficking polonium. Russian authorities refused the Germans access to the Aeroflot flight Kovtun took to Germany, instead insisting he was not an assassin, but rather another assassination target. They've gone on to offer -- with a straight face -- the suggestion that former Yukos oil executive Leonid Nevzlin was behind the killing of Alexander Litvinenko. This claim might be vaguely more credible -- although not actually credible -- were Russia not already trying to get Nevzlin extradited from Israel on somewhat suspect fraud charges.
Of course, if you don't buy that Nevzlin did it, maybe you'll go for another former Yukos executive. I'd recommend Mikhail Khodorkovsky on the basis of his already being in jail, but the Russian Prosecutor General's office beat me to the punch. They've questioned him already.
With misdirection this clumsy, it would be better for Putin to just be quiet and leave it alone. Litvinenko's already out of the news cycle; blaming Yukos execs just pushes him back in.