Thomas Nilsen

Fighting enemy drones is the new Northern Fleet scenario

Witnessing one Black Sea warship after the other being hit by Ukrainian drones and missiles makes the Russian navy rethink its modus operandi.
March 26, 2024

U.S. Air Force B-1B bombers on Barents Sea mission met by Russian fighter jet

A pair of US Air Force B-1B strategic bombers supported by tanker planes flew over Norway and international airspace in the Norwegian- and Barents Seas in the direction of Russia's Kola Peninsula on Sunday.
March 24, 2024

Bombers from Kola led wave of attacks on Ukraine, NATO airspace in Poland violated by missile

At least four Tu-95MS strategic bombers from Olenya Air Base south of Murmansk took part in a new massive wave of air strikes against Ukraine Sunday morning. One Russian cruise missile entered the air space of Poland.
March 24, 2024

One single vote from 100% win for Putin at Novaya Zemlya

Tightening control of society, killing opponents and staging elections have secured Vladimir Putin’s total grip of Russia. But few electoral districts made the leader more happy than the Arctic archipelago of Novaya Zemlya.
March 21, 2024

Norwegian border town finally scraps cooperation agreement with Russia's war-focused Pechenga

The municipal council of Sør-Varanger, where Kirkenes is the town center, on Wednesday ended its friendship agreement with next-door Pechenga Rayon.
March 20, 2024

"The attack on Leonid Volkov demonstrates the logic of terror that the Kremlin spreads throughout the world"

"Anyone can become a target regardless of location," says Novaya Gazeta Europa editor Kirill Martynov after Navalny ally Leonid Volkov Tuesday evening was attacked with a hammer and tear gas outside his home in Lithuania.
March 13, 2024

Alaskan soldiers will fly across North Pole and jump over northern Norway

They call themselves America’s Arctic Angels, the parachuting soldiers with the U.S. Army 11th Airborne Division. Next week, the ultimate transpolar exercise kicks-off.
March 12, 2024

Izvestia: Admiral Moiseev takes over as Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy

Russia's new Navy commander has decades of experience from the north, including onboard ballistic missile submarines sailing the Barents Sea.
March 10, 2024

Protesters ‘rename’ street in front of Russian Consulate in Kirkenes after killed opposition leader Navalny

A few locals in Kirkenes on Friday morning took their own initiative to 'rename' the street after the killed Russian opposition leader. Mayor Magnus Mæland supports the name-change.
March 08, 2024

Swedish forces exercise in northern Norway as the country officially joins NATO

March 7 became historic as all Nordic countries now are members of the North Atlantic Alliance. It happens simultaneously as thousands of Finnish and Swedish soldiers cross the border to Norway's Finnmark region for NATO's largest Arctic exercise so far north ever.
March 07, 2024

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Thomas Nilsen is editor of the Independent Barents Observer with its news desk located in Kirkenes, northern Norway. He has a long experience in media cooperation across the borders in the high north of Europe, both as radio- and newspaper reporter all the way back to the days before the breakup of the Soviet Union. 

Nilsen has been editor of Barents Observer since 2009.

He was Deputy Head of the Norwegian Barents Secretariat from 2004-2009. Until 2003, he worked 12 years for the Bellona Foundation’s Russian study group, focusing on nuclear safety issues and general environmental challenges in northern areas and the Arctic. 

Thomas has been traveling extensively across northern Scandinavia and Arctic Russia since the late 80’s working for different media and organizations. He is also a guide at sea and in remote locations in the Russian north for various groups and regularly lectures on security issues, environmental and socio-economic development.

Thomas Nilsen studied at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

Mobile: +47-90573143

thomas@thebarentsobserver.com
@nilsen.thomas