Atle Staalesen

Chinese money for Northern Sea Route

Building of Russian Arctic infrastructure is part of a $9.5 billion credit agreement signed with the China Development Bank.
June 12, 2018

Expeditionary force moves 850 km across most militarized Arctic island

Five 30-ton heavy ATVs are making their way around the Novaya Zemlya as part of a major exploratory effort of the Northern Fleet.
June 11, 2018

«I will continue to cross the border to Kirkenes»

The number of people crossing the Norwegian-Russian border is shrinking. But some people, like Aleksandr, will continue to travel between the countries. «I have been doing my shopping in Kirkenes since 1995», he says.
June 08, 2018

Landing troops in the borderland

A series of drills on landing marine infantry soldiers to desolate Arctic shores are in the making in the Sredny Peninsula, just few kilometers from the border to Norway.
June 06, 2018

Colossal statue coming to island outside Murmansk

No seafarer sailing to the Russian Arctic city will be able to overlook the huge statue of Orthodox Saint Nicolas soon to be erected in the Kola Bay.
June 06, 2018

Two Russian rigs ready for Arctic drilling

Jackup rig «Arcticheskaya» has arrived in Murmansk after 5-months of repair in Singapore, and sister rig «Amazon» is ready to spud wells in the Gulf of Ob.
June 05, 2018

Lack of infrastructure hampers development, says Murmansk Governor Kovtun

The Russian Arctic region faces increasing troubles in financing its flagship project, the Murmansk Transport Hub.
June 04, 2018

As Norwegian MPs make first visit to Moscow in seven years, Russian legislators adopt new counter-sanctions bill

The visit was to take place in 2017, but was then cancelled because two members of the Norwegian delegation had ended on a Russian sanction list.
June 01, 2018

AkerBP drilled first Arctic well in 4 years, found no oil

The company made only a minor discovery of natural gas at the Svanefjell prospect in the Barents Sea.
May 31, 2018

New Arctic-bound railway eyes Eurasian investment

We are definitely interested in the materialization of the Belkomur railway, leader of the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) makes clear.
May 31, 2018

Pages

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