Does the Russian government have kompromat -- compromising material -- on President Donald Trump?

The possibility that Russia spent years collecting evidence of salacious private activity by Trump with the ultimate goal of blackmailing him was put forward last year in a "dossier" compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele. Most of the allegations in the 35-page document, produced for various Trump political opponents, remain unverified, and some of them have been debunked.

Trump himself said in January the dossier is "all fake news. It's phony stuff. It didn't happen."

But Steele's controversial work hasn't gone away, with U.S. congressional committees seeking to interview Steele. Last month, Republican House intelligence committee staffers reportedly made a secret trip to London to ambush Steele.

Now, Britain's The Independent newspaper reports, little-known Russian politician Nikita Isaev said this week the dossier does correctly get to the heart of the matter -- that Russia has compromising information on Trump. "Of course we have it," he said.

Isaev, an economist, declared that he would like to see a full airing of the government's Trump material on Russian TV.

"Let's hit Trump with our kompromat," he said.

Is this just grandstanding by Isaev, a poke in the U.S.'s eye in the wake of the Trump administration's recent closing of Russian consulates on American soil?

That wouldn't be out of character for any politician looking to make a name for himself in Vladimir Putin's Russia. It's entirely possible Isaev knows nothing about whether the Russian government has kompromat on Trump and is just stirring the pot.

Kremlin knows Trump soap opera is coming to a head in DC. All their agents, trolls & bots are active -- as you see. https://t.co/EN4tiZHLrp — John Schindler (@20committee) September 5, 2017

This much, at least, isn't in dispute: The U.S.-Russia relationship continues to deteriorate. President Putin said Tuesday that the Trump administration's retaliation for Putin's recent ousting of some U.S. diplomatic staffers in Russia "was done in such a rude way."

He added, cryptically, that Trump is "not my bride, and I'm not his groom."

-- Douglas Perry