Russia's 'kompromat': Soviet-era tool to blackmail opponents

Reports that Russian intelligence gathered compromising information about US President-elect Donald Trump have stirred memories of the dark art of "kompromat", a Soviet-era form of blackmail used to shame adversaries. The practice was widely used by the Soviet Union's secret services to squeeze information out of Western diplomats during the Cold War and has left many ruined victims in its wake. The method -- which sometimes involves tapped phones, hidden cameras and honey traps -- outlived the