Since this is "Hacker News" I would like to ask an honest question: Which is more likely of the two?

1. The hacker mistakenly sign in from Russia once.

2. The hacker intentionally sign in from Russia once.

I really have no bias towards all this issue and don't really care, but I do care about media making interpretations that mislead the public, which is why I draw this question.

One widely used hacking technique is to intentionally leave a trail that leads investigators down the wrong track, not just for hacking but for all crimes.

I'm just having hard time understanding how people are taking for granted that a competent hacker is more likely to leave a trail by mistake instead of leaving one intentionally, because in most cases it's the latter.