[1]Experts from Russia's chief meteorological center today panned conspiracy theories that the government is planning to use 'rain' to beat anti-Putin protesters.
Scientists said it was physically impossible to cause 'the artificial rainstorm' that occurred during a recent protest march.
The claim was first made by opposition MP Ilya Ponomaryov, a member of the moderate leftist party Fair Russia, who wrote that 'experts' had tested the rain water and had found 'unnaturally high content of silver iodide', RT reported.
He also claimed that the government were planning to use weather against the seemingly popular 'Russia Day marches' to disperse crowds.
The case then turned murkier when a weather admitted that aircraft had sprayed chemicals on clouds on June 12 - Russia Day. But officials said the chemical spray was used to disperse water-carrying clouds and not to attract rain.
China had used a similar technique to disperse rain clouds over the Beijing Games.
Scientists dismissed the rain conspiracy saying 'it was impossible to bring showers over a particular area'.
Links:
[1] http://archive.asianage.com/russiac0jpgcropdisplayjpg-751