Political honey traps in Russia

Telegraph:

...

Her mission, it is claimed, is to discredit prominent Kremlin critics by luring them into compromising situations using vintage KGB honey trap techniques.

Offering her own body, sex, and drugs from cocaine to marijuana as an inducement, "Katya" as she is usually known has tried and often succeeded in bedding at least half a dozen high-profile Kremlin critics.

The reputational damage she has inflicted has varied from serious to negligible depending on her victim's marital status and response.

Her latest victim was Viktor Shenderovich, a journalist and the script writer on Russia's now defunct version of the Spitting Image TV satire.

Mr Shenderovich, who is married and has a daughter, admits that he slept with Ms Gerasimova but claims he was set up by the Kremlin.

Though he has tried to laugh the incident off, his credibility as an authoritative critic of Vladimir Putin, the prime minister, appears to have been at least partly dented by the sting and his marriage is now reportedly in trouble.

The editor of Russian Newsweek magazine also fell under Ms Gerasimova's spell and was filmed in his underpants chopping up what looked like cocaine after having sex with her.

A clutch of anti-Kremlin opposition figures and activists including a man who looked like the leader of the radical National Bolshevik Party have also been caught in flagrante delicto with the twentysomething model.

But unlike Soviet times when the secret service used compromising material or 'compromat' as it was known to blackmail, Ms Gerasimova's exploits have been widely publicised in grainy and heavily edited videos on the internet.

The videos are often accompanied by mocking music and subtitles. It has taken a few weeks for her victims to realise that they have all been set up by one and the same girl.

...


You would think that some of these "victims" would recognize her at this point. Perhaps they are swept away by the attention and the goodies, but if they have been a critic of Putin they should be alert to the trap.

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