Thomas Nilsen

“Gepard” sails Barents Sea again

Nuclear powered attach submarine on voyage after two years of repair.
December 01, 2015

Zero asylum seekers at Storskog after Norway places police on borderline

"Persons without a valid visa will not be allowed to enter Norway," says State Secretary in the Ministry of Justice and Public Security Jøran Kallmyr.
November 30, 2015

Russia refuses to take back migrants

Attorney of Syrian family that Norway tried to expel last Friday says it is unlawful not to have their asylum merits hearing before being returned.
November 30, 2015

One million tons from Prirazlomnaya

Since the start of production two years ago, Russia’s only oil drilling rig in the Arctic, Prirazlomnaya, has produced one million tons of oil.
November 30, 2015

Arctic Russia is warming 2.5 times faster than rest of the globe

UN Climate Change Conference starts Monday, while streets in Arctic Murmansk are wet of melting snow.
November 29, 2015

Storskog gets fast-track for return of asylum seekers biking from Russia

Government instructs immigration authorities to reject applications from everyone with resident papers in Russia arriving over Storskog check-point.
November 26, 2015

Norway introduces border control

Basic principles of free movement stipulated in the Schengen agreement are in jeopardy. Norway tightens border with identity checks on buses, trains and ferries.
November 26, 2015

World's northernmost radioactive waste plant opens

“The plant is one of the largest international projects in the sphere of global nuclear safety,” says Murmansk Governor Marina Kovtun.
November 25, 2015

Norway should meet Russia for political talks

Member of Parliament, Kåre Simensen, says it is time to arrange bilateral meetings on high-level with Russia. Our faces have been turned away from each other too long now, he argues.
November 25, 2015

Statoil takes a second year Barents Sea break

Norway’s oil major returns to Arctic waters at the earliest in 2017.
November 24, 2015

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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