Kompromat

A Russian term for “compromising materials” – used to describe “evidence” deployed in political blackmail.

A sex tape aimed at discrediting an American diplomat (which U.S. officials have declared to be a forgery), has spotlighted once more the Russian termkompromat. As Nathan Hodge explained in Wired:

Of course, diplomats are well aware of – and are briefed on – the dangers of the “honey pot”: seduction as a tool for recruitment or entrapment. And Russia has a rich tradition of political blackmail. The Russians even have a word for it: компромат (kompromat, a contraction of the phrase “compromising materials”). One of the more famous incidents in recent Russian history involved Yury Skuratov, the country’s top prosecutor. In April 1999, Russian state television broadcast footage of a man resembling Skuratov in a three-way romp with a couple of prostitutes; the incident cut short the career of Skuratov, who had been investigating high-level corruption inside the Kremlin.

This most recent tape follows another that emerged in July which appearedto show a British diplomat in a tryst with two prostitutes. The diplomat resigned following the tape’s release, although the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office declined to comment on whether he did, in fact, feature in the film.