Corrected entry: General Karpov blackmails Professor Krilov into revealing the details of the plot by threatening to expose his son's homosexuality, which he says will result in his deportation to a prison camp. In fact as a highly placed Acadamecian like Krilov would surely know, homosexuality was not illegal in the USSR - it was legalised in 1922. Though officially frowned upon nowadays (though it is still legal) in the years the film was set there would have been no action taken against Krilov's son simply because he was gay.
The Fourth Protocol (1987)
1 corrected entry
Directed by: John Mackenzie
Starring: Michael Caine, Pierce Brosnan, Ned Beatty, Joanna Cassidy
Genres: Thriller
Plot hole: Explosions are very predicable and leave very clear traces after detonation, and the precise epicentre of a small nuclear explosion could be established within a few meters. Experts from the United States military could show that the nuclear explosion originated outside the airbase, and the evidence they could show (aerial photographs, etc) would be irrefutable. They could even invite their counterparts in the Russian military to see for themselves. The only way Petrofsky's plan could have worked would be if he could somehow get the bomb inside the perimeter of the airbase - not a terribly likely proposition.
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Suggested correction: The plan was to claim that a USAF fighter bomber carrying an unstable nuclear warhead had crashed while on approach to the airbase, causing the explosion.
What plan? This plot twist is not mentioned anywhere in the film or the book. The posting is absolutely correct.
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Correction: Stalin recriminalised it in 1933 with Article 121 of the Soviet Union criminal code, which made male homosexuality a crime punishable by up to five years in prison with hard labor. It was still a crime in the time period of this movie. Article 121 was eventually repealed in 1993. Karpov is also threatening to reveal that Krilov had an affair with an American CIA agent while on a diplomatic mission, a gross and seriously criminal dereliction of duty.