Not really. I remember the story was a sensation when it was first covered by Peskov. Not so much these days, in Russia anyway.
I have totally never heard of it.
Did you mean "пиздец"? What you wrote would be be pronounced more like "peepets" or "pippets".
Yes he did. But it's not a typo. It's hard to explain - it's an intentional misspelling of a curse word that makes it somewhat more socially acceptable.