Atle Staalesen

Doomed Arctic LNG platform arrives in Gydan

After three weeks of towing across rough Arctic waters, the 640,000 ton heavy production platform arrives in the remote port of Utrenny. It might never produce liquified natural gas as planned.
August 19, 2024

Town of submariners honours killed occupants

A monument is erected in the north Russian navy base of Polyarny for local men killed in Ukraine.
August 16, 2024

As Ukraine advances in Kursk, families of north Russian conscripts cry mercy

"Don't kill our kids," the mother of a young soldier pleads as Russian conscripts are reported killed and taken prisoner in the region of Kursk.
August 15, 2024

In Solovki, someone desecrated the memorial to Ukrainian victims of Soviet terror

The memorial stone erected to the many Ukrainians killed in the far northern Soviet concentration camp has been ravaged.
August 14, 2024

Sister ships of wanted runaway carrier NewNew Polar Bear are heading toward European waters

Authorities in Beijing admit that the container carrier in 2023 damaged the Balticconnector pipeline in the Gulf of Finland. At the same time, Chinese shipper Hainan Yangpu NewNew Shipping Co is sending three of its other vessels into north Russian waters.
August 13, 2024

Young FSB border guards in Alakurtti could soon be sent to war

Many of the conscript soldiers that this week swore oath to the FSB Border Guard Service will have to prepare for deployment on the front.
August 13, 2024

Murderous track record of Putin's exchanged hitman Vadim Krasikov leads to Karelia

The FSB agent that was part of the historical prisoner swap between Moscow and the West is most likely behind several homicides, including the killing of a local politician in Karelia in 2007.
August 09, 2024

Counting of killed Komi warriors reaches 600

A local survey gives a name and picture to the many men from the north Russian region of Komi killed since Moscow's full-scale onslaught on Ukraine.
August 08, 2024

"The world has taken up arms against us," combative Murmansk church leader Mitrofan says during visit to NATO border

In an address delivered in the Church of Boris and Gleb, only few hundred meters from the border to Norway, the Metropolitan of Murmansk told a tale about Russia being under attack and its warriors in Ukraine only seeking peace and love.
August 07, 2024

More than 2,000 km north of Ukraine, an oil refinery ablaze

The reason for the explosion at the Usinsk oil processing plant is "not yet clear," representatives of local Russian authorities say.
August 07, 2024

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Atle is journalist and Publisher of the Independent Barents Observer.

In 2002, he founded the Barents Observer. He was editor until 2009 and later worked as journalist and project coordinator for several European cross-border cooperation projects. In late 2015, following a conflict over editorial rights, he re-established the Barents Observer as an independent and non-profit stock company along with the rest of the newspaper crew.  

Atle has a degree in Russian studies from the University of Oslo and studied journalism at the Moscow State University.

atle@thebarentsobserver.com
@atlestaalesen