Fake defection, often referred to as a "provocation" or " dangle" in intelligence circles, is a

defection In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state in exchange for allegiance to another, changing sides in a way which is considered illegitimate by the first state. More broadly, defection involves abandoning a person, ca ...

by an

intelligence agent Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangibl ...

made on false pretenses. Fake defectors (who may be referred to as "plant"s) may spread

disinformation Disinformation is false information deliberately spread to deceive people. It is sometimes confused with misinformation, which is false information but is not deliberate. The English word ''disinformation'' comes from the application of the L ...

or aid in uncovering

moles Moles can refer to: * Moles de Xert, a mountain range in the Baix Maestrat comarca, Valencian Community, Spain * The Moles (Australian band) *The Moles, alter ego of Scottish band Simon Dupree and the Big Sound People *Abraham Moles, French engin ...

. The risk that a defection may be fake is often a concern by intelligence agencies debriefing defectors. Examples of Soviet defectors that some sources have considered fake include

Oleg Penkovsky Oleg Vladimirovich Penkovsky (russian: link=no, Олег Владимирович Пеньковский; 23 April 1919 – 16 May 1963), codenamed HERO, was a Soviet military intelligence (GRU) colonel during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Pen ...

(considered fake by Peter Wright and

James Angleton James Jesus Angleton (December 9, 1917 – May 11, 1987) was chief of counterintelligence for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 1954 to 1974. His official position within the organization was Associate Deputy Director of Operations for ...

) and

Vitaly Yurchenko Vitaly Sergeyevich Yurchenko ( rus, Виталий Сергеевич Юрченко; born May 2, 1936) is a former high-ranking KGB disinformation officer in the Soviet Union. After 25 years of service in the KGB, he defected to the United States ...

. Examples of US fake defection operations include Operation Shocker. In fiction, examples of fake defection include the

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

film ''

The Living Daylights ''The Living Daylights'' is a 1987 spy film, the fifteenth entry in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions, and the first of two to star Timothy Dalton as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Directed by John Glen, the film's ...

'' (1987), a subplot in the TV Show ''

The Americans ''The Americans'' is an American historical drama, period spy fiction, spy drama television series created by Joe Weisberg that aired on the FX (TV channel), FX television network for six seasons from January 30, 2013, to May 30, 2018. Weisberg ...

'', the novel '' The Spy Who Came in from the Cold'' and its

film adaptation A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dial ...

, and ''

Torn Curtain ''Torn Curtain'' is a 1966 American Political thriller, political thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Paul Newman and Julie Andrews. Written by Brian Moore (novelist), Brian Moore, the film is set in the Cold War. It is about ...

'' (1966 film).

Carl Boggs Carl Boggs (born 22 July 1937) is a social science and film studies professor at the National University in Los Angeles. He received a Ph. D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley in 1970. He has also taught at the Uni ...

(ed. 2003),
Masters of War: Militarism and Blowback in the Era of American Empire
',

Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and ...

, p325

References

Espionage techniques Counterintelligence Defection Disinformation {{espionage-stub