Boris:
Thanks for your response. The reason for asking that question is that, being a product of a soviet-style society (poland) myself, I know the profound role hearsay play in that part of the world. I can cite scores of truly fantastic stories, from food being secretly shipped out of the country in coal containers or hidden in secret storage facilities, to various conspiracies and cover-ups that were repeated and eagerly believed as 'explanations' of political events. Moreover, the underground publications, or 'samizdaty,' actively participated in that process, circulating various unconfirmed rumors and stories.
To look into the roots of that "para-information" we need to consider the following: - the aura of secrecy surrounding political decision-making in e. europe an x-ussr; - the alienation of power elite from society - the low lever of education in society - feeling of disempowerment in society - high level of social solidarity facilitating 'social processing' of information (as opposed to lone individulas facing the media in the US) and the importance of 'stock knowledge' (i.e. a set of shared beliefs that cannot be conformed or denied by considered to be true for purposes of everyday life) - vicious propaganda campaign waged by the US (Rado Free Europe, Voice of America, etc.), spreading rumors and accusations designed to delegitmate and destabilize the regimes.
As I argued elselwhere, rumors and conspiracy theories play multiple roles: from imposing some sense on situations which people do not understand and control, to ritualistic revenge against powerful elites (the "At least I screwed their evil plans by exposing them" thing), to propagandistic manipulations (by foreign and domestic agencies), and to solidarity bonding and social reproduction of "stock knowledge."
There may or may not be some truth to the conspiratiorial explanation of the Chechnya war. I personally favor the explanation that it is a plot of Pakistani and US intelligence - a leftover form the Afghan war. Those secret operations never die, even if their usefulness expire, the spooks and war mongers keep on fighting the old battles - as the case of the totally irrational US policies toward Cuba suggest. But it is just a speculation. Unless we have material evidence, anytheing we say on the subject is .. welll, let's call it stock knowledge or social construction of reality.
cheers
wojtek