Thomas Nilsen

Severomorsk ATM dispensed dollars instead of rubles - so the man repeated the operation 20 times

Bank employee mistakenly loaded $100 notes into the box for 500-ruble notes.
October 17, 2018

No more single-use plastic at Hurtigruten’s Svalbard operations

Additional to the cruise ships, the ban will be imposed on all land based operations, like hotels, restaurants and other establishments in Longyearbyen.
October 16, 2018

US Marines launch exercise in northern Norway ahead of Trident Juncture

Air support will be provided from the carrier USS “Harry S. Truman” when soldiers will train at shooting ranges in Troms.
October 15, 2018

Russia's largest landing ship to sail north through major NATO exercise

The Russian navy has decided to the “Ivan Gren” should embark on an inter-fleet transfer from the Baltic to the Northern Fleet now in October.
October 14, 2018

Last three reactor compartments soon off the water

25-years with safe decommissioning of Cold War submarines in the Russian north will come to an end next year.
October 14, 2018

World's northernmost battery-powered bus route starts in Luleå

Cold climate is no obstacle for green battery commuting in the largest city in Sweden’s northernmost county.
October 14, 2018

Putin ordered nuclear exercise with launches of multiple missiles

Ballistic missiles were launched from submarines in the Barents- and Okhotsk Seas. Long-range aircraft were also in the air with dummy nukes.
October 11, 2018

Kremlin downplays possible Putin-Trump Arctic summit in Finland

President Niinistö, though, says there are progress in the plans for a Arctic Summit in Finland next year.
October 11, 2018

Coal mining clean-up job at Svalbard will cost minimum €74 million

Norwegian Government grants 331 million kroner (€35 million) for 2019, but that is just the start.
October 11, 2018

Nikora calls for oil refinery on Kola

The Murmansk Deputy Governor wants to earn more money on Russia’s Arctic oil.
October 09, 2018

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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