LOL @ the toilet paper issue! But yeah, I can believe there would be people stupid enough to buy into that.
I don't know what the current "toilet-paper standards" are in major Russian cities.

I do recall very well from the early 1990s, however, that:

(1) Public restrooms quite often had no toilet paper at all;

(2) When public restrooms did have paper for wiping your butt, it was often squares cut from old newspapers.

(3) While it was easy to find "real" toilet paper on rolls at Russian stores, it's only a slight exaggeration to say that you could use the stuff as a substitute for sandpaper.

(4) Soft, comfortable, absorbent toilet paper could also be found in some Russian stores, but the label was always in English or some other Western European language. (I can remember some Russian friends marveling over the extreme comfort of "pre-moistened towelettes" imported from Italy, because they were SO MUCH NICER than the toilet paper actually manufactured in Russia.)

Sure, it's possible that things have greatly improved since then -- but if so, then it's a rather recent improvement, and the notion that "it's difficult to find good TP in Russia" is hardly what I would call a развесистая клюква (in the sense of a "baseless stereotype".)