provokatsiya
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Borrowed from Russian провока́ция (provokácija). Doublet of provocation.
Noun[edit]
provokatsiya
- A political event staged by an intelligence service on behalf of its government in order to accomplish some political goal.
- 2014 February 27, Anne Applebaum, “The pressure is on Ukraine”, in Washington Post[1]:
- Certainly the organization formerly known as the KGB has some expertise in destabilizing foreign countries, particularly through the use of provokatsiya. One of those non-Slavic words that nevertheless appear in every Slavic language — prowokacja in Polish, provokace in Czech — a provokatsiya is technically a "provocation." But it has a narrower meaning as well: a political event or action that the authorities, through their secret services, create to serve their own purposes. A staged crisis; the publication of outrageous documents, authentic or fake; a rapidly organized political movement of the far right or far left; an anonymous bomb explosion: All of these can be provokatsiya. Putin, himself trained in KGB methods, knows this very well.