Even if you don’t read Russian, a recent print ad for Louis Vuitton is something of a visual joke: Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the last leader of the old Soviet Union, sits in a limousine as it passes a remaining part of the Berlin Wall, an open Louis Vuitton bag beside him.

If you do read Russian, the ad seems to be even more curious: poking out of the bag is a publication with the headline, “The Murder of Litvinenko: They Wanted to Give Up the Suspect for $7,000.”

The reference is to Alexander V. Litvinenko, the former K.G.B. spy who died last November after being poisoned with a radioactive isotope, polonium 210. On his deathbed, Mr. Litvinenko accused President Vladimir V. Putin of orchestrating his murder; the British authorities have accused one of Mr. Litvinenko’s associates, Andrei K. Lugovoi, of the crime, and have requested his extradition from Russia, which the Kremlin has refused.

Last week, as the translation of the headline in the ad started circulating on the Internet, some natural questions arose. Was the message placed there deliberately? And what did it mean?