Nonsense. They were designed to have people who don't know the series ask, WTF, and those that do know the series to get a chuckle.
Of all the cities, and over 3 weeks, and only the ninnies in Bahhhston got their panties in a wad.
So, today we find out that Berdovsky was following the police bomb squad around, filming them removing the devices as if they were bombs, without informing them that they were harmless. He stood by and let the city be paralyzed and filmed it all for his little guerrilla marketing campaign...
The plot thickens!