DEPARTMENT OF DISINFORMATION

a department in the KGB (the intelligence and internal-security agency of the former Soviet Union) created in 1959. Disinformation is false or deliberately misleading information about a country's military strength or plans, etc., publicly announced or planted in the news media, etc. The KGB's Department of Disinformation ran numerous disinformation operations through the use of foreign intelligence reports, deliberately leaking false information and rumors to the foreign media, planting forgeries in order to deceive the public or politicians in a given country and through elaborate clandestine propaganda campaigns. It was also known as Department D.