dubious claim the claim that russia invented the lightning rod is doubtful for two reasons first it is unverifiable that nevyansk tower built between and was intended for the specific purpose of being utilized a lightning rod whather it was used as a lightning rod it remains unverifiable secondly i probably would believe such a claim if there was a in fact citation referenced in this article that is written in the english language all we are given is an inappropriate and unacceptable reference in the form of a web page written in russian that to english speakers is totally useless to verify such a claim this is english wikipedia not russian wikipedia and thirdly by conducting my own research there is a vast consensus by doing a search engine which shows that by far and large benjamin franklin is attributed to inventing the lightning rod regardless if others may have built a rod that was unintended for such a purpose because of this i have added a tag to the russia section of this article