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 made on false pretenses. Fake defectors (who may be referred to as "plant"s) may spread disinformation or aid in uncovering moles. 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 (considered fake by Peter Wright and James Angleton) and Vitaly Yurchenko. Examples of US fake defection operations include

Operation Shocker Operation Shocker was a 23-year counterintelligence operation run by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation against the Soviet Union. The operation involved the fake defection in place of a US Army sergeant based in Washington, D.C. who, in return f ...

. In fiction, examples of fake defection include the James Bond film '' The Living Daylights'' (1987), a subplot in the TV Show '' The Americans'', 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'' (1966 film). Carl Boggs (ed. 2003),
Masters of War: Militarism and Blowback in the Era of American Empire
', Routledge, p325

References

Espionage techniques Counterintelligence Defection Disinformation {{espionage-stub