kompromat

noun

kom·pro·mat ˈkäm-prə-ˌmat

-ˌmät

: compromising information that is used to blackmail or discredit a person or group usually for political purposes

… alleged to have kompromat on elites from two continents and across the political spectrum …—

Tim Dickinson

The Russian press and Internet thrive on kompromat, "compromised material," which is usually bought from underpaid government security-force employees or former security agents ….—

Maureen Orth

… technology companies may already have more info about your personal life than a Russian kompromat dossier.—

Jeremy Horwitz

Examples of kompromat in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Some people suggested that Prigozhin had kompromat on Putin and that was why Putin didn’t dare get rid of him. —

Foreign Affairs, 23 Aug. 2023 Did Russia have kompromat on Trump? —

Craig Unger, The New Republic, 1 Feb. 2023 One of your main collectors who spoke to the inspector general said that, especially the kompromat, was word of mouth and hearsay, conversations with friends over beers. —

ABC News, 17 Oct. 2021 Steele then tapped his network of Russian contacts to mine for compromising information—kompromat—on Trump. —

Paul Starobin, Wired, 17 July 2021 The fact that Raniere collected kompromat from DOS members strongly suggests that his psychological coercion techniques were not, by themselves, sufficient to keep women acquiescent. —

Zoë Heller, The New Yorker, 5 July 2021 The Russian language has introduced a few words that in recent years have been widely used and misused in English: disinformation, kompromat, Novichok. —

New York Times, 21 Feb. 2021

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'kompromat.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.