SORM, which apparently stands for “System for Operative Investigative Activities,” is a mass surveillance system in Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Roskomnadzor is Russia’s “Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media” according to English wikipedia.

The following is from an October 2013 article describing Russia’s domestic surveillance system prior to the winter Olympics in Sochi.

“In Russia, the FSB [Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, successor to the Soviet KGB] must also obtain a court order to eavesdrop, but once they have it, they are not obliged to show it to anybody except FSB superiors. Telecoms providers have no right to demand to see the warrant; they must pay for Sorm equipment and installation, but are denied access to the boxes. The FSB does not even need to contact ISP staff; instead it calls the FSB controller, who is linked by a protected cable to the Sorm device installed on the ISP network.”