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 With an Islamist insurgency raging across the North Caucasus
Mountains east of the Black Sea resort, Russia's security agencies
have had carte blanche to ensure that nothing spoils President
Vladimir Putin's pet project. While the official line is that the
stringent measures are meant to block the terror threat, critics say
the Kremlin is equally concerned about preventing anti-Putin
protesters from raising an embarrassing ruckus at the games.
The filters are activated right at the ticket-buying stage.
Anyone wanting to attend the games that open on Feb. 7 will have to
buy a ticket online from the organizers and obtain a "spectator
pass" for access. Doing so will require providing passport details
and contacts that will allow the authorities to screen all visitors
and check their identities upon arrival. Guests will be asked to
wear their passes while attending Olympic events for quick and easy
identification.
Russian government officials and Sochi organizers say the security
pass is necessary to keep the games safe. Some critics, however,
says that it will do little to deflect a terror threat from people
already in the Sochi area — as potential terrorists would have had
years to settle within the security zone.
"This kind of pass, this kind of measure might stop some people from
going to the Olympics ... but this kind of measure can't deal with
the people who actually live in the area," said Andrei Soldatov, an
independent Moscow-based security analyst.
While China was criticized for undeclared visa bans on people from
some countries in the Middle East and Africa during the 2008 Summer
Games in Beijing, it introduced identity checks only for the opening
and closing ceremonies.
Organizers of the 2012 London Olympics put up some unprecedented
security, including patrols by combat jets, surface-to-air missiles
on rooftops and an aircraft carrier on the River Thames, but they
didn't reqire any passes in addition to tickets.
The tens of thousands of police, security agents and army troops to
be deployed in Sochi are twice as many as during the London Summer
Games, said Matthew Clements, an analyst at Jane's.
"The Sochi security effort is much more far-reaching," Clements
said. "This also represents the fact that there is an active
insurgency operating in the near vicinity."
Militants aspiring to create an Islamic state in the North Caucasus
have spread across the region after two separatist wars in Chechnya.
The epicenter of the rebellion is in the Caspian Sea province of
Dagestan, about 500 kilometers (300 miles) east of Sochi, where
rebels launch near daily attacks on police and officials. But other
Caucasus provinces lying closer to Sochi also have been roiled by
violence.
Clements said that the security zone created around Sochi stretches
approximately 100 kilometers (60 miles) along the Black Sea coast
and up to 40 kilometers inland. Russian forces include special
troops equipped for patrolling the forested mountains towering over
the resort, speed boats to patrol the coast and state-of-the art
sonars to spot submarines.
The security regime includes a ban on the entry of all cars from
outside the zone starting one month before the games and ending only
one month after they end. Vehicles involved in servicing the
Olympics but registered elsewhere need special passes.
Inside the Sochi security zone, the government has a list of more
than 600 facilities to be put under special protection months before
the games. Along with the Olympic facilities, bridges, railway
tunnels and depots, the list includes Sochi schools, kindergartens,
hospitals, hotels, restaurants and stores.
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Russian security agencies have developed a massive surveillance
system that critics say will allow them to intercept any phone calls
and Internet traffic, with a particular emphasis on Sochi.
Russia's communications surveillance system, SORM, the Russian
acronym for the System of Operative Investigative Measures, has
required all telecom providers to install equipment that feeds all
traffic directly to security agencies. Their officers are required
by law to have a court sanction for eavesdropping, but they don't
have to show it to anyone.
"The system ... is very intrusive," Soldatov said, "much more
intrusive than in the West."
Official papers have suggested that the SORM system in Sochi has
been modernized to cope with the heavy flow of communications during
the games, but officials have said little about the details.
Earlier this year, the Communications Ministry issued a directive
urging all communications companies to introduce new equipment
capable of intercepting mail traffic on Gmail and Yahoo.
Soldatov said that in addition to terrorists, authorities may be
looking to filter out protesters.
A controversial Russian law banning gay "propaganda" has drawn broad
international criticism, and activists may be planning protests in
Sochi despite an official ban on all rallies.
The Russian government also has invested heavily into other means of
surveillance, installing some 5,500 closed-circuit cameras
throughout Sochi and buying a fleet of drones. The drones could be
particularly handy for quickly spotting anyone attempting to break
an official ban on protest in Sochi.
Months before the games, security agencies have moved to expel some
of those whom they consider unwelcome. In particular, police have
conducted sweeping document checks among thousands of migrant
workers who were recruited to build Olympic facilities and deported
many, drawing criticism from rights groups.
Critics compared the measures to the Soviet actions ahead of the
1980 Summer Games in Moscow, when the KGB simply sent all those
deemed suspicious out of the capital.
Police in Sochi have conducted methodical house-to-house checks to
screen residents and advised those who lack permanent registration
in the city to leave.
Police and other security agencies have run dozens of drills to
prepare for possible emergencies. The latest involved several dozen
people posing as terrorists to check the readiness of security
agencies and the vigilance of the population. The exercises also
involved checking all cars at entry points to the area, exasperating
motorists who spent hours in traffic jams.
[Associated
Press; VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV]
Cassandra Vinograd in
London and Christopher Bodeen in Beijing contributed to this report.
Copyright 2013 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
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