Russian conspiracy-theory: Russia defeated Napoleon in 1812 with a nuclear bomb.

[Warpy]

2. I thought it funny enough when Erich von Daniken came up with the idea

to explain Tunguska about a century later. In fact, that made ten year old me realize how full of shit he was.

Here, conspiracy nuts are generally those who don't read/won't read. There, their access to information has been limited for a long time and even when it was a little more freely available, people weren't used to being able to access it and didn't. So they've got an excuse but we don't.

Putin's problem is that he falls into the "won't read" category, with the exception of bullshit from Oleksandr Dugin, someone whose lofty theories about Russia's exalted place in the world would make von Daniken blush but which Adolf Hitler would understand perfectly if you changed a few names.