presumably compiled compromising materials (kompro-mat) on foreigners so they could be blackmailed or thrown out if necessary. One time at the bar of the hotel in Odessa run by Intourist, the agency that handled foreigners’ travels, a young woman jumped suddenly on my neck as flashbulbs went off. In Samarkand a colleague and I were surreptitiously given vodka at an outdoor teahouse and then arrested for drinking it. Another colleague, a strict teetotaler, was slipped a Mickey Finn meant to make him look totally drunk. But as in the current case, these were usually unverified — kompromat, after all, ceases being useful once it is made public.

Source: New York Times January 14, 2017 21:02 UTC