Russian President Vladimir Putin has just imposed harsh new security measures around the resort town of Sochi, home to the 2014 Winter Olympics Games. The measures, which went largely unnoticed outside of Russia, may be the most extreme ever placed on an Olympic city. But as Putin attempts to present an image of stability, progress and prosperity to the rest of the world, his enemies are now accusing him of planning a gulag-style restricted area in and around Sochi. 
 
 Our web monitoring of Russian-language internet traffic revealed that the accusers are anti-Russian Islamic insurgents in the North Caucasus, a restive region not far from Sochi. The rebels, who have a bloody history of terror attacks, have long made clear their intentions to target the Olympics. 
 
 unprecedented compared to what? Since the mid-1980s, the Olympics have always been held in democratic countries--save for the 2008 Olympics in China. Those Olympics were previously the most extreme in their implementation of population control and security measures. Our research shows that the Sochi measures will be even more intense. 
 
 The Kavkaz Center, a rebel news outlet, is now decrying the presidential decree that Putin signed on Monday, which will institute the stringent new security measures in Sochi beginning Jan. 7 and going until March 21, 2014. It creates a restricted zone of up to 80 miles around the city, and blocks road entry into the area for everyone except registered residents, emergency vehicles, railway passengers and those traveling with special government permission. That leaves train and air travel as the only viable modes of transport, which will allow the security services to strictly scrutinize the belongings and identities of incoming travelers. Since the Olympics take place between Feb. 7 and Feb. 23, that means the city will be on virtual lockdown for months simply for the sake of a two week sporting event. 
 
 how we know We continually monitor postings from Kavkaz Center. While the site clearly supports terrorist groups such as the Caucasus Emirate, they often present correct facts, but add in commentary clearly slanted toward sympathy for jihadi causes. Their calling the security situation around Sochi unprecedented-though hyped up to win a propaganda victory against Russia-is actually a valid point. 
 
 As part of the new measures, Putin also banned public protests and marches unrelated to the Olympics within the area. So protesting about gay rights certainly seems out of the question. Athletes won’t even be allowed to paint their fingernails in solidarity with their gay and lesbian counterparts. The Sochi protest prohibition comes on the heels of a country-wide law, passed last summer, that introduced fines of up to $10,000 or two years in prison for participating in a spontaneous demonstration. The alternative, applying for permission to assemble, can be rejected for any reason by the government. 
 
 Who Runs Kavkaz Center? The site was created by Movladi Udugov, the Deputy Prime Minister and head propagandist for the former Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Currently, he uses the site as part of information campaign to support the Caucasus Emirate and other pan-Islamic jihadi causes. 
 
 The Kavkaz Center’s accusation that Putin is tightening a Stalin-like grip on Sochi (where Stalin famously had a dacha, or vacation home) is sure to stir the pot among the Islamic insurgency’s followers. The Center is considered an influential information source among Islamists, and we used specialized software to examine who follows its social media pages. Besides 8,000 Twitter followers, they have Facebook followers ranging from young women in Macedonia and Austria to men from France and the Republic of Georgia. 
 
 To dig deeper about public opinion, we used specialized software to analyze Russian social media posts following the announcement of the restricted zone in Sochi. Here are some results: 
 
 Доку Умаров пообещал аллахакбар в 2014 в Сочи. Если что-то взорвут – через год население С. Кавказа будет состоять лишь из российских солдат — Степан Грозный (@faraday_m) August 20, 2013 
 
 “Doku Umarov promised an Allahuakbar in 2014 in Sochi. If they blow something up—in a year the population of the North Caucasus will consist only of Russian soldiers.” 
 
 Doku Umarov is the leader of the Caucasus Emirate terrorist group, which has threatened to attack the Games. 
 
 Another social media user posts a link to an article about the vast security apparatus that Putin is employing. 
 
 40 тысяч полицейских будут обеспечивать безопасность на зимней Олимпиаде 2014 в Сочи http://t.co/bTrhekhNf7 — Новости Ставрополья (@bzfrmt_stav) August 20, 2013 
 
 “40 thousand policemen will provide security for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.” 
 
 That number is staggering when you consider that during the 2012 London Olympics, the British deployed only 20,000 soldiers and policemen, and the event was located in a much larger city. 
 
 While some worry about Olympic terror attacks, the Russian propaganda machine keeps churning out positivity both on Facebook and its Russian equivalent, VKontakte. 
 
 Expect nothing less You'll only hear positive news about Sochi coming from official Russian sources, who will continue to paint a rosy picture despite a myriad of shocking abuses that Vocativ has reported on. The international reputation of the Russian government, as well as President Putin's personal prestige, depends on the Games going off without a hitch. 
 
 Using the official kids’ outreach Facebook page, “Mascots of the Olympic Games Sochi 2014,” the government published the cuddly image below. 
 
 The description explains that the Olympic mascots are the best company for travel to the mountains. Although the new restrictions make this happy, stuffed-animal friendly scenario unlikely. 
 
 The official VKontakte page, “Sochi Games 2014,” published the following image. 
 
 From the above post, which says “200 days until the Paralympics in Sochi,” it seems that the Russian government is already getting amped about the next event in the sub-tropical city. (The Paralympics will take place in Sochi in March.) Paradise, it seems, can only be preserved by barbed wire. ||||| Putin has spent $2 billion to keep the Winter Games safe from terrorist attacks like those in Volgograd last month. But even if Sochi is safe, Russia may not be. 
 
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 Russian President Vladimir Putin takes part in a friendly hockey match at The Bolshoy Ice Dome in Sochi, Russia, on Saturday. With the Olympics Games just a month away, Mr. Putin faces a difficult balancing act of both improving his international reputation and cracking down on terrorism after last month's bombings in Volgograd. 
 
 With just one month to go before the Sochi Olympics open, Russia is launching the biggest security operation in Olympic history in a tense and largely secret effort to thwart an invisible enemy who has sworn to do everything possible to blight the prestigious international event with acts of mass terror. 
 
 President Vladimir Putin traveled to Sochi last week to inspect the Olympic venue's $2 billion "ring of steel" defenses, which are to go into full operation tomorrow, exactly a month before the Games begin. Earlier he visited Volgograd, where two suicide bombings killed 34 people just before the New Year, and pledged additional measures to fight the terrorists until their "complete annihilation." 
 
 He has won some support from the international community. In recent days announcements by US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and British Prime Minister David Cameron have promised unspecified but deeper and more effective security cooperation with Russia in the run-up to the Olympics. "We both want the Sochi Games to be a safe and secure Games," Mr. Cameron told journalists after a telephone conversation with Mr. Putin last Friday. 
 
 Sochi's "ring of steel" is a zone about 60 miles long and 25 miles deep, in which the local population and visitors will be subjected to near total surveillance. The measures, according to security expert Mark Galeotti, include a garrison of about 25,000 special police, 8,000 interior troops, unknown numbers of plainclothes agents, special forces such as the "Alpha" anti-terrorist squad of the FSB (the successor to the KGB), and up to 30,000 regular troops to patrol the nearby borders with Georgia and the breakaway Georgian republic of Abkhazia. The skies will be full of Russian Air Force fighters and at least a dozen drones; ultra-modern S-400 and Pantsir-S anti-aircraft missiles capable of taking down any airborne threat will be deployed around the zone; and four of the Russian Navy's new Grachonok anti-saboteur patrol boats with teams of divers and special sonar equipment will range up and down the coast. 
 
 Putin's gamble 
 
 The stakes are high for Putin, who has invested Russia's prestige and $51 billion of mostly state cash in hosting the Winter Olympics. 
 
 "Putin's personal image is closely connected to the outcome of these Games. So I am absolutely sure that whatever can be done, will be done," says Gennady Gudkov, a former KGB security expert and ex-Duma deputy. 
 
 It's not only Putin's international reputation that hangs in the balance. His domestic popularity rests largely on his image as a tough and uncompromising slayer of terrorists. 
 
 He arrived in power in autumn 1999 amid a wave of deadly apartment bombings that killed hundreds, and used the public panic over the acts to launch a fresh war against Chechen militants, re-impose strong central government, and greatly beef up Russian security services. Since then, as both president and prime minister, Putin has faced intermittent waves of terrorism which he has often turned to his own advantage. For example, he seized upon the horrific 2004 school siege at Beslan to abolish local elections and further ratchet up the powers of security forces. 
 
 But a long lull in serious terrorist attacks against Russia's heartland has been shattered by the Volgograd bombings, and in the nail-biting tensions of the coming weeks and months, Russians will be expecting him to ensure their security. 
 
 "This is Putin's basic promise to Russians, that he will make us safe," says Andrei Piontkovsky, a veteran Kremlin critic. 
 
 "If we look back over the past 15 years, we can see that he never really kept that pledge. We've been hit over and over again," he says. "But because of the Olympics, the whole world is watching. It may be that the extraordinary concentration of security resources in Sochi means that city is safe, but what about the rest of the country? Even Moscow? If terrorists strike anywhere, it will seriously undermine faith in Putin." 
 
 Finding balance 
 
 Putin has taken several steps to restore world confidence in the Sochi Olympics, especially after President Barack Obama decided last month that neither he nor any other top US official would be attending the Games. Late last month, the Kremlin amnestied thousands of prisoners, including many of those regarded as "political" in the West. In Sochi last week, he relaxed a ban on all protests at the Games and designated a special area where demonstrations may be held with official permission. 
 
 But keeping the Olympics safe – and without suffocating them in omnipresent security measures – is his greatest challenge, say experts. 
 
 "One of the purposes of terrorists is to sow uncertainty, ill temper, and chaos," says Alexei Makarkin, deputy director of the independent Center for Political Technologies in Moscow. 
 
 "The other side of that coin is the excessive tightening of security measures. This can pose big problems for athletes and spectators. How to secure the Games without creating onerous difficulties for fans – to make the event controllable and calm at the same time – is the biggest issue here. If the balance tips either way, the Games risk being a failure," he says. 
 
 Unseen dangers? 
 
 Some experts warn that in Russia, where a seething North Caucasus Islamic insurgency has been marked by shifting allegiances, and security services have been accused of murky dealings with terrorist networks, there may be unseen dangers ahead. 
 
 Most reports focus on Chechen Islamist warlord Doku Umarov, who is presumably holed up somewhere in the rugged Caucasus Mountains, as the main threat. But Nikolai Petrov, a leading expert on Russia's regional politics and a professor at Moscow's Higher School of Economics, suggests that other forces, including members of pro-Moscow Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov's retinue and rogue elements of Russia's own security services, may have a strong interest in aiding and abetting more acts of terrorism. 
 
 "When we examine these recent Volgograd attacks, it's hard not to notice how well planned and well organized they were. They seem to have enjoyed a lot of logistical help," he says. "Kadyrov may have pacified Chechnya, but his funding from Moscow has been falling lately, and he may not expect to be given such a free hand in Chechnya after the Olympics are over. Some officials in the security forces have interests in private companies that provide security for airports and other transport infrastructure, and there are huge profits to be made in this field." 
 
 "Terrorism has become a big business, and there are people with a real, material interest in keeping it going," Mr. Petrov adds. "I know how strange this may sound. But we have seen such things before in Russia, and nothing should be taken for granted here."
– An ominous new report on Vocativ says the Sochi Olympics may be the most extreme, security-wise, in the history of the Games—the site describes "a gulag-style restricted area" instituted by Vladimir Putin. The Christian Science Monitor calls the restricted zone the "ring of steel," an area 60 miles wide and 25 miles deep that will be patrolled by tens of thousands of security troops and in which everyone "will be subjected to near total surveillance." Air Force fighters, drones, anti-aircraft missiles, and anti-saboteur patrol boats will be deployed. Travel in and out of the city will be restricted; public protests and marches will be banned. But the most ominous part: According to the Monitor, some worry that even these measures may not be enough. The biggest potential threat appears to be the North Caucasus Islamic insurgency and Chechen Islamist warlord Doku Umarov, leader of the Caucasus Emirate terrorist group, who has promised an attack at the Games. But there are others, experts warn, who are similarly interested in terrorizing Sochi. "When we examine these recent Volgograd attacks, it's hard not to notice how well planned and well organized they were. They seem to have enjoyed a lot of logistical help," says one expert. "Terrorism has become a big business, and there are people with a real, material interest in keeping it going." A rebel news outlet has been decrying Putin's security measures, Vocativ reports, noting that the lockdown starts today—a month before the Games start—and lasts until March 21, nearly a month after they end.