Thomas Nilsen

Supreme Court cancels Yakunin-case ruling, Russians not allowed to fly drones in Norway

"The flight ban for Russian nationals include drone flights," the Supreme Court says in its ruling on Friday. With the decision, the case will be sent back to the district court in Tromsø.
June 30, 2023

Old nuclear ship sails into Barents Sea with subsidized cargo for the Far East

For the fourth year in a row, Rosatom engages the world’s only remaining civilian reactor-powered cargo vessel for cargo transport from St. Petersburg to Petropavlovsk in Russia’s Far East via the Northern Sea Route.
June 30, 2023

Kola nuclear power plant turns 50. That is not necessarily something to celebrate

The first VVER-440/230 reactor at Kola Nuclear Power Plant was connected to the electricity grid on June 29, 1973. Western sanctions do not trouble the safety as most spare parts are made in Russia, says environmental watchdog Bellona.
June 29, 2023

What is Russia trying to tell? Second maritime artillery shooting in June next to Norway border

The powerful Northern Fleet conducts artillery shooting next to the maritime border with Norway in the Varanger fjord on June 28 and 29.
June 28, 2023

Third Chinese polar icebreaker will carry deep-sea submersibles

The icebreaking multifunctional research ship is expected to be delivered in 2025 and will sail both Arctic and Antarctica
June 28, 2023

Arkhangelsk ship packed with students spurs controversy in Norway

Permission to use an onboard grab to sample a few bottom sediments on the seafloor east of Svalbard triggers media headlines in Norway.
June 27, 2023

No extra pressure on northern border amid chaos

Murmansk governor Andrei Chibis calls on northernness to stay calm as armed uprising shocks Russia’s central and southern regions. In Severomorsk, the home to the headquarters of Russia's Northern Fleet, security alert is heightened.
June 24, 2023

Asylum-seeking Wagner defector back in borderland

No war crimes against civilians, Andrei Medvedev claims: “No Wagner fighters allowed themselves to do something illegal. If this had happened, this man would be shot right on the spot.”
June 23, 2023

US bombers land in northern Sweden for first time

“This is a historic event,” said Brigadier general Tommy Peterson, acting chief of Sweden’s air force.
June 21, 2023

GUGI closes inlet to Olenya spy-sub base with floating barrier

New satellite images this June show what appears to be a boom net barrier stretching from shore to shore across Olenya Bay, home to Russia’s top-secret special mission submarines.
June 15, 2023

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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