Thomas Nilsen

Russian Svalbard prison out of question

Governor Lars Fause makes clear it is the Norwegian state that has the monopoly of power to punish.
September 06, 2024

Northern Fleet kicks off “special military exercise”

Norwegian expert on Russia’s military maneuvers in the north says the ongoing exercise has a primary focus on multi-domain bastion defense to protect the strategic important ballistic missile submarines.
September 05, 2024

September heat record for Murmansk

The hotter-than-normal summer in Russia’s northwest corner is continued into September with temperatures never seen before on record for the month.
September 04, 2024

Trouble vessel has departed Tromsø, but future uncertain

Loaded with 20,000 tons of ammonium nitrate, the Ruby is now at anchor near Vannøya north of Tromsø with slight damage to propeller, hull and rudder.
September 04, 2024

Bullet hole found on ‘Whaledimir’

A bullet hole is found on ‘Whaledimir’ - the Russian-origin Beluga whale that last weekend was found dead in the waters outside Stavanger in Norway.
September 04, 2024

Exceptionally warm summer in Finnmark

4 to 6 degrees Celsius higher than normal and the warmest August ever on record in northern-Norway.
September 03, 2024

Cargo of ammonium nitrate got port of refuge next to University Hospital of North Norway

The vessel came from Russia’s northern port of Kandalaksha and carries 20,000 tons of the hazardous material ammonium nitrate known from many explosions in the past, including the disastrous 2020-Beirut blast.
September 03, 2024

'Whaledimir' is dead

The Beluga whale escaped from a Russian navy base on the Kola Peninsula in 2019 and has since enjoyed freedom along the coast of Norway.
August 31, 2024

First radioactive waste from southern Russia arrives at Kola Peninsula

When Western donors agreed to pay for construction of radioactive waste treatment facilities in the Murmansk region no one had in mind it could turn out to be a nation-wide dumpsite.
August 28, 2024

Pilots fear flights will run low on fuel over sudden airspace closure

Drone attacks north to the Kola Peninsula have several times in the last few weeks caused aviation authorities to shut down airspace on immediate notice, forcing civilian passenger planes to stay on stand-by in circles or fly a long detour.
August 27, 2024

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Thomas Nilsen is editor of the Barents Observer. 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 Russia and the Arctic. 

Thomas has been traveling extensively across northern Scandinavia and Arctic Russia since the late 80’s working for different media and NGOs. He has also been a guide at sea and in remote locations in the Russian north for various groups and regularly lectures on security, environment and Russia’s repressive influence operations.

In 2017, FSB declared Thomas Nilsen persona non grata (PNG) and since 2019 the censorship agency Roscomnadzor has attempted to block the Barents Observer from the Russian internet.

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

Mobile: +47-90573143

thomas@thebarentsobserver.com
@nilsen.thomas