Atle Staalesen

Court extends arrest of Yuri Dmitriev

The Karelian historian and human rights leader will have to spend more weeks behind bars.
March 21, 2017

Russia’s North Pole station in the making

Two helicopters are on their way to find a suitable ice floe for the Barneo-2017. Like previous years, the Norwegian airport of Longyearbyen will serve as logistical hub for the camp.
March 20, 2017

Come visit this center, environmentalists in border town Nikel say

No halt in cooperation on the border between Russia, Norway and Finland. On the contrary - we want more contact, says Vladimir Chizhov as he officially opens the new Visit Center of the Pasvik Nature Reserve.
March 17, 2017

More Chinese tourists choose Murmansk

They are now the biggest group of foreign travellers in the Russian Arctic region, almost twice as many as the ones from neighbouring Nordic states.
March 16, 2017

Journalist Union protests Russia’s expulsion of Thomas Nilsen

It is a violation of the European Human Rights Convention and we have reported it to the Council of Europe, the Norwegian Union of Journalists says in a letter sent to the Russian Embassy in Oslo.
March 15, 2017

Rare birds around Arctic oil field - no problem

Unique populations of birds nicely nest alongside the new Novy Port oil project, researchers hired by company Gazprom Neft say.
March 14, 2017

Murmansk counts on Chinese investors

Regional authorities say Poly International will invest $300 million in the projected Lavna coal terminal.
March 14, 2017

Going All In: Norway proposes massive opening of Arctic shelf

The country offers a historic 93 new blocks in the Barents Sea
March 13, 2017

Expelled Barents Observer editor is on sanction list

Thomas Nilsen is on a Russian so-called «stop-list» of individuals denied entry to the country, the Russian Embassy in Oslo confirms. A series of reports about Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin and his controversial visit to Svalbard might have been what triggered the reaction.
March 11, 2017

Russia expands studies of Svalbard shelf

A research vessel will this year sail more than three weeks in the waters off the Norwegian Arctic archipelago to study the shelf and its oil and gas potential.
March 10, 2017

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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