Thomas Nilsen

Russia says it will start direct tourist voyages to Svalbard

Ildar Neverov, the leader of state-owned company Arktikugol, made the announcement about a direct sea route from mainland Russia to Svalbard at a seminar at the Humanitarian University in Moscow earlier this week.
April 03, 2024

Tiny amount of radioactive iodine measured in Tromsø

The Norwegian Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (DSA) underlines that the levels of Iodine-131 measured pose no harm to humans nor the environment.
April 03, 2024

The War troubles Nornickel as it struggles to shift to new markets

Consolidated revenue shrank significantly in 2023 for the Arctic giant metal producer as European buyers refuse to trade with the company that indirectly pays hundreds of millions of dollars in tax to Putin’s war economy.
April 01, 2024

Russia starts Friday with large-scale air attack on Ukraine, Tu-95 bombers from Murmansk active

Strategic bombers from Olenya airbase strike targets across Ukraine Friday morning in yet another massive terror attack against civilians and infrastructure.
March 29, 2024

U.S. strategic bombers fly second Barents Sea mission this week

A Russian MiG-31 fighter jet was scrambled from the Kola Peninsula to identify the pair of U.S. Air Force B-1B bombers over the Barents Sea. Simultaneously were a Swedish and a U.S. intelligence gathering planes active north, west and south of the Murmansk region.
March 26, 2024

Fighting enemy drones is the new Northern Fleet scenario

Witnessing one Black Sea warship after the other being hit by Ukrainian drones and missiles makes the Russian navy rethink its modus operandi.
March 26, 2024

U.S. Air Force B-1B bombers on Barents Sea mission met by Russian fighter jet

A pair of US Air Force B-1B strategic bombers supported by tanker planes flew over Norway and international airspace in the Norwegian- and Barents Seas in the direction of Russia's Kola Peninsula on Sunday.
March 24, 2024

Bombers from Kola led wave of attacks on Ukraine, NATO airspace in Poland violated by missile

At least four Tu-95MS strategic bombers from Olenya Air Base south of Murmansk took part in a new massive wave of air strikes against Ukraine Sunday morning. One Russian cruise missile entered the air space of Poland.
March 24, 2024

One single vote from 100% win for Putin at Novaya Zemlya

Tightening control of society, killing opponents and staging elections have secured Vladimir Putin’s total grip of Russia. But few electoral districts made the leader more happy than the Arctic archipelago of Novaya Zemlya.
March 21, 2024

Norwegian border town finally scraps cooperation agreement with Russia's war-focused Pechenga

The municipal council of Sør-Varanger, where Kirkenes is the town center, on Wednesday ended its friendship agreement with next-door Pechenga Rayon.
March 20, 2024

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Thomas Nilsen is editor of the Independent Barents Observer with its news desk located in Kirkenes, northern Norway. He has a long experience in media cooperation across the borders in the high north of Europe, both as radio- and newspaper reporter all the way back to the days before the breakup of the Soviet Union. 

Nilsen has been editor of Barents Observer since 2009.

He was Deputy Head of the Norwegian Barents Secretariat from 2004-2009. Until 2003, he worked 12 years for the Bellona Foundation’s Russian study group, focusing on nuclear safety issues and general environmental challenges in northern areas and the Arctic. 

Thomas has been traveling extensively across northern Scandinavia and Arctic Russia since the late 80’s working for different media and organizations. He is also a guide at sea and in remote locations in the Russian north for various groups and regularly lectures on security issues, environmental and socio-economic development.

Thomas Nilsen studied at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

Mobile: +47-90573143

thomas@thebarentsobserver.com
@nilsen.thomas