Atle Staalesen

In political shoot-out, opposition leader takes aim at Moscow's man in Komi

Following a brawl in the regional parliament, opposition leader Oleg Mikhailov challenges Komi Governor Vladimir Uyba to a duel; an open one-on-one debate on public television.
May 04, 2021

Russian North sees sharp decline in population. Only military towns grow

The region of Murmansk in 2020 had a more than 1,1 percent drop in its population. But several of the Northern Fleet's closed military towns saw a boost in newcomers.
May 03, 2021

It's an order from Moscow: the new Murmansk railway line must be completed

As construction of the Murmansk Transport Hub had come to a full halt, top federal officials assembled for a talk in Moscow.
April 30, 2021

Andrei Borovikov gets 2,5 years in jail for sharing music video by Rammstein

"Dear friends, whatever will happen to me, that must not affect your spirit of protest," the former leader of Aleksei Navalny's regional office in Arkhangelsk said in an address ahead of his arrest.
April 30, 2021

Ships loaded with wind turbines are on their way to Murmansk

Seventeen shipments with turbine components will be sent to far northern region as construction of Russia's first Arctic wind power farm progresses.
April 29, 2021

Murmansk: gunshots against window of opposition leader

Violetta Grudina has experienced attacks, death threats and repeated police detention. And this week someone fired gun shots thought her office window.
April 28, 2021

Total buys stake in Murmansk LNG terminal

The French company acquires 10 percent of Arkticheskaya Perevalka, the subsidiary company of Novatek that will operate a natural gas reloading facility on the Barents Sea coast.
April 28, 2021

Navalny's regional offices close as "the darkest of times" is coming to Russia

The regional offices of the Russian opposition leader are forced to close as the Russian General Prosecutor presses extremism charges against the organization.
April 27, 2021

Ten months after giant Arctic spill, inspectors fear more accidents at Nornickel's oil tank farms

Several of the storage tanks are up to 70 years old and the company has failed to fix a huge number irregularities, inspectors from the Russian environmental control authority say.
April 27, 2021

Chinese and Turkish shipbuilders fight over Russian icebreaker dock

No Russian company wanted to build a floating dock for the country's fleet of nuclear powered icebreakers. Instead, the contract has ended up in a corporate wrangle between a Chinese and Turkish yard.
April 23, 2021

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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