Social media is awash with claims, repeated on news websites, that Russian President Vladimir Putin surrounded himself with actors for his New Year's address and at previous events. But what's the evidence?
The guy who has been obvious assassination bait for twenty years is not going to do photo ops with randos.
Russia has been Potemkin Village: the Country since the tzar was still alive and maybe before. This is not a secret.
I don't want to call it a conspiracy theory, but I'm not sure what else would be a better thing to call it.conspiracy... science?