Thomas Nilsen

No Punk Prayer in borderland after pressure from Putin’s diplomats

Norwegian folk musician Moddi will preform banned or censored songs from around the world, but removes his version of Pussy Riot’s controversial Punk Prayer from the play-list.
November 15, 2016

Shipyard reveals unique video of spy submarine

“Podmoskovye” can carry mini-submarines aimed at detecting and protecting underwater intelligence cables in the Barents and Norwegian Sea.
November 12, 2016

Norway hikes 2017 defense budget

2,1 billion Norwegian kroner (€231 million) increase year on year, of which the majority addresses the Armed Forces long-term defense plan.
November 08, 2016

More border crossings to Finnmark, less to Lapland

10 percent increase at Storskog, while Raja-Joosepi and Salla still see a decline in cross-border traffic.
November 08, 2016

Nordic countries agree on Arctic dialogue with Russia

Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg invites all her Nordic colleagues to Tromsø next January. Russia’s Foreign Minister might be in town at the same time.
November 08, 2016

High peak in low season, Iceland’s mass-tourism boiling over

1,8 million visitors may not be all good news for the tiny populated island with fragile nature and underdeveloped infrastructure.
November 05, 2016

Nordic countries launch new environmental support program for Northwest-Russia

Aimed to cut pollution, improve biodiversity and protect endangered species.
November 04, 2016

United against Russia’s aggression

Nordic and Baltic Prime Ministers stand firm on sanctions until peace in Ukraine.
November 02, 2016

Two nuclear submarines from Kola sail into Mediterranean

The two Akula-class submarines from the Northern fleet have joined the battlegroup of Russian naval vessels.
October 30, 2016

“What now happens in the world is utterly awful,” Vigdís Finnbogadóttir

The former Icelandic President is not optimistic thirty years after Ronald Reagan and Michael Gorbachev’s Reykjavik meeting that marked the beginning of the end of the Cold War.
October 29, 2016

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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