Gathering “kompromat,” the Russian word for potentially embarrassing information that can offer leverage, has a long history reaching back to Soviet days. And Russia, said one Federal Security Service colonel, has not lost its taste for kompromat despite the flat-out denial by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. [Trump and Obama briefed on unconfirmed claims Russia has compromising information on president-elect]But the deep roots of kompromat add another layer to the probes into the credibility of the reports about a Trump dossier. Russia, however, has made no attempt to hide its support for Trump, whom many Russian leaders see as less adversarial than Clinton. “I can tell you from my professional experience that Russia does not have such practices.”[Trump: Good relations with Putin “an asset”]Gudkov disagreed.

Source: Washington Post January 11, 2017 10:53 UTC