Aslak (19) and Iver (21) are packing up warm clothes in the room before leaving for patrol out in the freezing cold wilderness along the Norwegian-Russian border. Photo: Thomas Nilsen

The Norwegian soldiers are armed when on patrol along the border to Russia. There are two border stations where the soldiers live when on duty. Here, the Pasvik border station, responsible for the southern sector of the 200 km long border. Photo: Thomas Nilsen

Packing up the gear for the patrol along the Norwegian-Russian border. Photo: Thomas Nilsen

Head of the unit of border guards in Pasvik, Lars Erik Gausen, keeps an eye on possible movements close to the border line on both sides of the frozen river. Photo: Thomas Nilsen

The border soldiers use snowmobiles in winter and patrol boats on the river during summer. Photo: Thomas Nilsen

There are no fences or other physical barriers on the Norwegian side of the border. Russian border guards, however, have built a several meters high barbed wired fence all long its border with Norway and Finland. Photo: Thomas Nilsen

"The border runs in the River," the signs says. Photo: Thomas Nilsen

The temperature in Pasvik dropped to minus 25 degrees Celsius as Army conscripts Aslak and Iver made patrol along the border. Norway's side of the border is marked with yellow and black border poles. Photo: Thomas Nilsen

Watching Russia: On a normal day there is little but taiga forest to see on the other side of the border along the Pasvik River. Photo: Thomas Nilsen

While no civilians are allowed to enter anywhere near the border on the Russian side, Norwegians can freely move along the riverbanks and even fish in the river. Private houses and cabins are all along the Pasvik River. Photo: Thomas Nilsen

On the Russian side, civilians are not allowed to move anywhere in the border area without special permission. A barbed-wire fence stretches all way from the coast to the Barents Sea in the north and 1,540 km all way to the Bay of Finland in the south. Photo: Thomas Nilsen

The Russian checkpoint at Borisoglebsk is the only legal way to exit Russia along its border with Norway. Photo: Thomas Nilsen

The Norwegian-Russian border is 198 km from Finland in the south to the Barents Sea in the north. In the Pasvik valley, the borderline follows the river. Photo: Thomas Nilsen