A Soviet term denoting operations conducted to accomplish specific political goals, the principal one being the
misrepresentation of Western policy on particular issues and generally discrediting the status of the “main adversary” in the Third World. The scale of the campaign, and the KGB’s involvement in the development and execution of specific items of disinformation, was disclosed by a KGB officer, Anatoli Golitsyn, following his defection in Helsinki in December 1961.