But the recent use of private investigators to search for compromising information turns a tough but acceptable practice into a dangerous trend.
"The Kremlin does not engage in collecting kompromat," he added, using a Russian term for compromising material.
That created a fierce rival for Mr. Chaika — and compromising material started to spill into public view.
Mr Kuchma's people have vast "administrative resources"—a post-communist euphemism for vote-rigging powers.The other big election weapon is compromising material (kompromat, for short).
"During a [political] standstill, Americans in search of compromising materials on Putin were desperate to bite, at least, St . Petersburg the city where Putin was born, where he, apparently, had his children baptized and where, of course, he has so many friends," Kondrashov said.
Ms. Veselnitskaya, for her part, denied that the campaign or compromising material about Mrs. Clinton ever came up.
Mr. Assange certainly seemed to have acquired compromising material.
The police collected compromising material on everyone in the Kremlin, even purportedly on Stalin himself.
Another was with a presidential aide, who hinted that the Kremlin held compromising material on Trump.
According to Mr. Steele's memos, it used an array of familiar tactics: the gathering of "kompromat," compromising material such as alleged tapes of Mr. Trump with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel, and proposals for business deals attractive to Mr. Trump.
Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, called the dossier "pulp fiction", saying the Kremlin did not have compromising material on Trump nor on Hillary Clinton, as the documents also said.
