Thomas Nilsen

Norway’s new Defense Minister comes from Finnmark

Frank Bakke-Jensen from Båtsfjord on the coast of the Barents Sea has broad experiences in Arctic politics.
October 20, 2017

Bonanza for airports in northern Finland

Rovaniemi, Kittilä and Ivalo set new passengers record. And that is before the Santa Claus and skiing season starts.
October 19, 2017

Northern Swedish city gets Europe’s largest battery factory

Skellefteå gets thousands of new jobs and takes a leading position in the booming market for electric cars.
October 19, 2017

Jail sentence for attempted illegal border crossing

Four citizens of Morocco were arrested behind Russia’s barbed wire fence on border to Norway.
October 19, 2017

Large areas in Barents and Kara Seas closed off for missiles shooting

Russia’s puts ban sailings around Novaya Zemlya for a ten days period and in the Barents Sea from now and until Sunday.
October 18, 2017

Foreign Ministers line up for Barents talks in Arkhangelsk

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov invites for Barents Council meeting where cross-border, low tension cooperation tops the agenda.
October 17, 2017

Trans-Arctic data cable up for discussion in Moscow

Telecommunication highway along the north coast of Siberia will link Finland with Asia via Kirkenes on Norway's Barents Sea coast.
October 17, 2017

Norway beefs up military presence in Finnmark

«... will give us more soldiers ready for combat on shorter notice,» says Minister of Defense Ine Eriksen Søreide.
October 13, 2017

Russia, Norway agree to reduce Barents Sea cod quota

The Barents Sea is still a highly productive and profitable fishery area.
October 13, 2017

Zero budget cash to Storskog

Cross-border traffic between Norway and Russia increases, but the checkpoint will still remain a bottleneck.
October 12, 2017

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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