Thomas Nilsen

Oulu traffic grows most, but Tromsø still busiest airport in northern Scandinavia

Scandinavian aviation authorities report a year-on-year increase in passengers at most northern airports in 2018.
January 17, 2019

Russia designs ice-breaking nuclear-powered submarine for Arctic shelf operations

Here it is: A vessel that can both crush through the ice and dive beneath it when working on extraction of mineral resources from the Arctic seabed.
January 15, 2019

Amid Putin and Trump turmoil, Nordic Defense ministers finds stronger unity

Norway and Sweden support a proposal from Finland to hold regularly joint Nordic cross-border military exercises with army troops.
January 15, 2019

Russia to deploy 16 nuclear-powered doomsday drones on combat duty from Barents Sea

Moscow’s new scary class of nuclear weapons will be deployed from two submarines sailing for the Northern Fleet, each to carry a maximum of eight drones.
January 14, 2019

GPS jamming jeopardizes public safety in Norway’s northernmost region

Both police and rescue services in Northern Norway are deeply worried as GPS signals are interrupted. Public safety and life could in worst case be in danger, warns the police.
January 10, 2019

Pilots again warned of GPS jamming in Norway’s border region to Russia

Norwegian Aviation Authority warns pilots in the airspace over Eastern Finnmark of irregular conditions for satellite navigation.
January 10, 2019

British attack helicopters arrive for winter exercise in Northern Norway

First time British Apache helicopters have operated in the Arctic.
January 09, 2019

2018 cross-border traffic down

Europe’s three northernmost border checkpoints to Russia all had a decline in traffic of about 4% in 2018.
January 08, 2019

Norway’s seafood export equates 37 million meals daily

Norwegian seafood export valued record high €10 billion in 2018, up 5% compared to 2017.
January 08, 2019

Photo shows venting radioactivity from 1987 nuclear bomb tests at Novaya Zemlya

The photo of a nuclear bomb test going terribly wrong in August 1987 is revealed by a Russian blogger.
January 08, 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