Boris and Anna

No, not that Boris and someone from the typing pool: the murder of Anna Politkovskaya.

Russian authorities have hinted that Boris Berezovsky, a leading critic of President Vladimir Putin who lives in London, was behind the murder of an investigative journalist in Moscow.

Anna Politkovskaya, who was investigating human rights abuses by the Russians in Chechnya, was shot in the lift of her apartment block on Oct 7 last year. Her death - the 13th murder of a journalist in Russia under Mr Putin's rule - provoked outrage.

Russia's prosecutor-general announced that 10 serving and retired police and security service officers had been arrested in connection with the death but insisted that they were acting under someone else's orders.

When asked by Russian journalists if he believed that Mr Berezovsky, a former oil tycoon, was behind the murder, he smiled and said: "Our investigation has led us to conclude that only people living abroad could be interested in killing Politkovskaya.

"Forces interested in de-stabilising the country, in stoking crisis, in a return to the old system where money and oligarchs ruled, in discrediting national leadership, provoking external pressure on the country, could be interested in this crime.

"Anna Politkovskaya knew who ordered her killing. She met him more than once."

Absolutely classic.