Thomas Nilsen

Giant Christmas theme park aiming at 10 million visitors annually

Plans for the Republic of Santa Claus theme park north of Rovaniemi include a giant transparent dome with round-the-year artificial snowfall and northern lights, gingerbread houses, a tall Christmas-tree formed hotel and the world’s biggest sauna village.
September 27, 2019

Walruses attacked and sank Northern Fleet boat at Franz Josef Land

Expedition participants from the Northern Fleet and Russian Geographical Society all managed to get to shore after their landing boat sank at Cape Heller at Franz Josef Land.
September 23, 2019

The melting Arctic is Shanghai's worst nightmare

China’s claims to be a near-Arctic state is not all about a Polar Silk Road and access to natural resources, but as well a deep concern about raising sea levels as the Greenland ice sheet melts.
September 22, 2019

Northern Fleet puts S-400 air defence system on combat duty at Novaya Zemlya

With a longer range than previous systems, the S-400 will protect air space over the eastern Barents Sea where Russia’s ballistic missile submarines are patrolling.
September 22, 2019

Climate change is about to divide Norway’s largest Arctic island into two

The front of Hornsundbreen is retreating every year and will eventually open a new strait between the Barents- and Greenland Seas through the island of Spitsbergen.
September 16, 2019

Prosecutors find insufficient anti-terrorist protection at Murmansk nuclear waste sites

Saida Bay and two other key nuclear waste facilities on the Kola Peninsula violate the law on physical protection, a regional court ruling says.
September 11, 2019

Here comes a nuclear-powered cargo ship loaded with seafood

Norway’s nuclear safety watchdog is informed about the voyage, but want to know more about Russia’s future plans for sailing commercial cargo with the reactor-powered «Sevmorput» container ship.
September 09, 2019

Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström resigns

September 06, 2019

B-2 stealth bomber on mission above Arctic Circle outside Norway

The flight was the farthest north the nuclear capable U.S. bomber had flown in the European air space.
September 06, 2019

Spy-colleagues of ‘Whaledimir’ are now better tied up at home in Russia

New satellite images from from the secret base of Russia’s Main Directorate for Deep Sea Research on the coast of the Kola Peninsula show that two pens with beluga whales are tied up with extra mooring ropes to hinder the animals to escape.
September 05, 2019

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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