Atle Staalesen

Taken by storm, the "Aleksandr Gusev" becomes landmark wreckage on Barents Sea coast

The 30 year old ship that used to shuttle along the coast of the Kola Peninsula with fish food for local sea farmers ended its life on a cliff near a Russian naval base.
November 07, 2023

Newnew Polar Bear sails towards Bering Strait

The ship suspected of sabotage against underwater infrastructure in the Baltic Sea is sailing towards the Pacific Ocean following its voyage through Russian Arctic waters.
November 06, 2023

Few weeks before launch, Russia's biggest LNG project is put on U.S sanction list

The Arctic LNG 2 is included in the State Treasury's sanctions list as part of efforts to curb Russia's future energy production, revenues and financing of war.
November 03, 2023

School kids in Severomorsk honour Andrei Paliy, the deputy fleet commander killed in Ukraine

School No 10 in the north Russian Navy city has put up photos and memorial plates of the 1st rang captain that served many years in the Kola Peninsula before he was appointed to Deputy Commander of the Black Sea Fleet and was killed in the battles over Mariupol.
October 30, 2023

Russian Foreign Ministry summons Norway's Ambassador over incident at war memorial in Kirkenes

According to Sergei Lavrov's men in Moscow, the adjustment of a Russian wreath at the local war monument in Kirkenes, northern Norway, is an "act of vandalism" and an expression of "russophobia."
October 27, 2023

Runaway ship Newnew Polar Bear, suspected of sabotage in Baltic Sea, is sailing into Russian Arctic waters

As it was waiting for icebreaker escort, the ship operator changed name and obtained a special permission for sailing on the Northern Sea Route.
October 26, 2023

With message to NATO neighbors, Russian corvette sails White Sea Canal and launches Kalibr cruise missile

Missile corvette Serpukhov sailed from St.Petersburg and through the inland waterway to the White Sea as part of a shooting exercise.
October 26, 2023

Russian General Consul stirs strife by the war memorial in Kirkenes

Despite repeated warnings from local authorities, Russian diplomat Nikolai Konygin showed up at the war monument in the Norwegian border town to lay down a wreath "to the memory of warriors and liberators that fell in the battle against Nazism."
October 25, 2023

Nuclear submarine town honors warriors killed in Ukraine with large Z-memorial

In the center of Zaozersk now stands a monument shaped in steel by the letters Z, V and O, the symbols of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.
October 24, 2023

Former Finnish towns celebrate Soviet "liberation"

Local Russian authorities on the territory that previously was named Petsamo pay tribute to the Soviet troops that seized the area in October 1944.
October 23, 2023

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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