Big Boris will be watching at the Winter Olympics

MOSCOW — Russia has installed an all-encompassing surveillance system at the site of next year’s Winter Olympic Games in Sochi that will allow security services to listen in on athletes and visitors, security analysts said yesterday.

The surveillance system was first developed by the Soviet-era KGB, predecessor of the FSB special services, in the mid-1980s and updated in recent years, said prominent security analyst Andrei Soldatov.

Dubbed SORM, the system will give Russian security services free access to all phone and internet communications at the Winter Olympics in February without the telecom providers’ knowledge, according to research by Soldatov and his colleague Irina Borogan.

Telecom providers are required to pay for the SORM equipment and its installation, but law enforcement agencies will be able to wiretap without having to show providers court orders allowing the eavesdropping, the analysts said.

“Operators do not know what and when the FSB is monitoring,” Soldatov told AFP.

Citing research based on documents published by the government procurement agency and other government records, the analysts said the authorities have been installing the surveillance devices in the Black Sea resort of Sochi since 2010.

Russia has pulled out all the stops to get the subtropic region ready, spending more than $50bn in state and corporate money.