Thomas Nilsen

Captain who saved White Sea from nuclear disaster dies at 67

When a training missile exploded in the silo, Captain Igor Grishkov immediately dived his enormous Typhoon submarine to flush away burning rocket fuel before the other nuclear weapon-tipped missiles were set on fire.
February 03, 2018

Town in northern Russia cancel gay parade over winter weather concerns

Russian authorities are known for troubling with LGBT communities, but this is first time meteorology is used to put an end to a parade.
February 03, 2018

Best January in four years

21,880 crossings at the Russian-Norwegian border, up 6% compared with January last year.
February 02, 2018

Ambassador questions Norway’s interest in Arctic and cross-border cooperation

Russian Embassy in Oslo hits back on accusations and says facilitating for cooperation is more important than demonizing.
February 01, 2018

Like Finland, Norway now names foreign states’ information operations as threat

Journalists could be contacted by intelligence officers and used to covertly impact public debate and political decisions, according to the Police Security Service (PST).
January 31, 2018

«Finland’s Pyhäjoki nuclear plant takes our pension money»

While four million elderly Russians live below the poverty line, the country’s pension fund pays for Rosatom-backed nuclear plant in northern-Finland. «Deeply unfair,» says Oleg Bodrov from the closed town of Sosnovy Bor near St. Petersburg.
January 29, 2018

Nuclear submarines inshore Norway 3 to 4 times monthly

NATO and Russia’s cat-and-mouse game in the Norwegian and Barents Seas gives a sharp increase in allied port-calls, especially in northern Norway.
January 27, 2018

No leakages from sunken nuclear sub, yet

After more than 10 years on the seafloor of the Barents Sea, no detectable levels of radiation are measured from K-159.
January 25, 2018

Kirkenes pleads for release of spy-accused Frode Berg

Town mayor, family and an ad-hoc group make an impassioned plea to Norwegian government to intervene to get Frode Berg out of FSB’s high-security Lefortovo detention prison in Moscow.
January 25, 2018

In times of trouble, hard work keeps the Arctic stable

Norway’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ine Eriksen Søreide, says the Arctic Council is one of the most important tools to retain peace in the high north.
January 22, 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