I think it's more interesting that people were so used to Soviet denials of any disaster they now remember this as one of them. They were slow to report the accident and slow to acknowledge its scope and severity. On the other hand, it was perfectly clear to Western observers that a serious accident had taken place, you can see that in the ABC report from April 28, 1986 linked in my other comment. I can't imagine any reasonable person thinking this was 'western misdirection'.

A UN IAEA team visited the site on May 8th, unthinkable in pre-Gorbachev times. Gorbachev was elected Secretary General only a year before.