Vladimir Georgievich Dekanozov (Russian: Влади́мир Гео́ргиевич Декано́зов; June 1898 – 23 December 1953) was a Soviet senior state security operative and diplomat.

[5][6] These rumours are known to have originated as a joke made by Georgian-born Joseph Stalin, who frequently teased and mocked Dekanozov.

[7][8] Some historians have concluded that he assumed the name "Dekanozov" and a Georgian ethnic identity in order to hide his true origin, an action that was quite common among the Bolsheviks.

Dovydenas asserted that Dekanozov's father was an ethnic Russian and that his mother was from a Jewish family assimilated to Baltic German culture.

This is also supported by a statement by J. Edgar Hoover, presumably based on British intelligence, that Dekanozov was born in Estonia and that his real name was Ivan Vasilyevich Protopopov.

From 1918, he allegedly worked as a secret agent in Transcaucasia, first in the People's Commissariat for Health of the short-lived (1918 to 1920) Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, and then in private oil-companies.

His sphere of responsibility before 1941 included Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, Mongolia, and Xinjiang, as well as the consulates, cadres, and finances of NKID.

Dekanozov and Paleckis brought a number of pro-communist non-members of the Communist Party into the first "people’s government", but in retrospect it is clear that they constituted window-dressing for the Soviet takeover.

For his part, Dekanozov pushed his program carefully, concentrating first of all on denouncing the Smetona regime in Lithuania, then promising to respect private property, assuring Lithuanians that agriculture would not be collectivized, and restraining any discussion of the possibility of joining the Soviet Union until mid-July.

They concentrated on creating an image of mass support, and they called for determined measures against those who somehow opposed the new order and wanted to sabotage the elections of 14 July.

In September 1943, he made a mysterious visit to Stockholm that Ribbentrop interpreted as a sign of Soviet interest in making a separate peace with Nazi Germany.

Dekanozov, regarded as a member of the so-called "Beria gang", was arrested in June 1953 and sentenced to death on 23 December 1953.