Thomas Nilsen

Activist in exile says Norway’s nuclear waste support is irresponsible

Nadezhda Kutepova was forced to flee Russia after fighting for the rights of the residents in radioactive contaminated villages near Mayak, the site where all spent nuclear fuel from Andreeva Bay will be sent.
June 07, 2017

Russia scrambled jet to identify Norwegian P-3 Orion

The Norwegian maritime patrol plane was flying near Russia’s border in the Barents Sea.
June 06, 2017

Announces daily flights from Murmansk to Tromsø, but unclear when

Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has informed Norway that Orenburzhye airlines is ready to start flights. Aviation authorities at Tromsø airport, though, haven’t been contacted.
June 06, 2017

Cold spring: Post-season reopening of skiing slopes

Saariselkä ski resort in Finnish Lapland still has 50-100 cm snow.
June 06, 2017

In Putin’s Year of Ecology, also nuclear weapon soldiers have to contribute

94 soldiers from the 12th Main Directorate flies to Novaya Zemlya to collect scrap metal at the nuclear weapons test site.
June 02, 2017

Coldest Lapland spring in 20 years

Average May temperature in Finnish Lapland was more than 6° C colder than last spring when it was green leaves in mid-May.
June 02, 2017

Justice Minister sees need for new border checkpoint to Russia

“Absolutely something to consider,” says Per-Willy Amundsen after visiting the undersized and cramped facilities at Storskog.
May 30, 2017

Look who's coming; world's largest submarine en route south

For the first time in many years, a Typhoon submarine made a short port call to a base on the Kola Peninsula this weekend. Russian media says next stop is St. Petersburg.
May 30, 2017

Fighter jets scrambled over Russian aircraft in weekend-break of Arctic Challenge Exercise

Fighter jets from Bodø were sent on Quick Reaction Alert on Saturday. Norwegian Joint Headquarters confirms increased activity by Russian military planes over the last few weeks.
May 29, 2017

Vegard issues more visas to Norway as Russian economy recovers

If cross-border traffic can indicate which way the wind is blowing for Norwegian-Russian relations this is good news.
May 24, 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