Thursday, November 22, 2007

Kompromat


Two interesting things have crossed my desk recently. One is a memo apparently from the Putinist campaign threatening a coal company that has failed to cough up a campaign contribution.

The other is an eavesdropped mobile phone conversation apparently (I stress) between the Georgian and Azeri interior ministers which casts both in a highly unflattering light. I leave it to your imagination, dear readers, to work out who might have bothered to bug and then leak this, or else to contrive and plant what would be a remarkably clever fake.

Unfortunately I cannot upload it here, but it is available to subscribers to my weekly mailing (email edwardlucas-subscribe@yahoogroups.com)



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

A friend of mine, the correspondent for the FSU countries for the Portuguese news agency Lusa, and a fierce critic of Putin, by the way, has just told me that the memo is most probably a fake. Apparently, the recipient company does not acknowledge its existence. His words were, loosely translated: "The Kremlin may be cheeky but not THAT cheeky".

Antonio Campos

Unknown said...

Doesn't that say a lot about a country that has a special abbreviation for discrediting materials? Kompromat?! In Polish we have some symbolic words for that, like "kwit" or "teczka", but it seems that we don't use it so often as Russians, who have created a completely new word.

klx said...

Apparently, the recipient company does not acknowledge its existence

considering the current climate in russia, are they likely to admit not supporting putin? are they likely to admit leaking a letter exposing not supporting putin? i put it to you that the kremlin are exactly that cheeky, and then some.

your friend from LUSA... what is his name? journalists in portugal don't hide their idenitity. perhaps you meant "russia today"?