Thomas Nilsen

Russia threatens to deploy missiles if Sweden joins NATO

“Russia will increase its military forces on its northern and northwestern borders, including build-ups of its Northern fleet, if Sweden joins NATO,” says deputy head of Federation Council’s Committee for Defence and Security Evgeny Serebrennikov.
April 29, 2016

Norway erects security fence on border to Russia

“We upgrade the security at Storskog checkpoint to be better prepared for controlling who enters the country,” says Minister of Justice and Public Security Anders Anundsen.
April 29, 2016

Moddi plays Pussy Riot’s Punk Prayer on church steps close to Russian border

VIDEO STORY: “The message that Pussy Riot was trying to spread was a legitimate one,” says the Norwegian musician Pål Moddi Knutsen. Denied inside, his translation of the song was recorded on the church steps in Grense Jakobselv.
April 27, 2016

Barneo moves operations from Longyearbyen to Franz Josef Land

Blames the Independent Barents Observer for reporting about North Pole military drill that triggered Norwegian authorities to implement new flight rules too rigorous to follow.
April 27, 2016

Barents Press calls on Lavrov to scrap demand for journalist accreditation

The Foreign Ministry’s bureaucratic accreditation rules hamper cross-border journalism in a period of time when objective information on Russia from western media is more important than ever.
April 25, 2016

Top of the world sees yet another heat record month

Planet earth, and particularly the Arctic, is heating up with average temperatures never seen before for the 11th month in a row.
April 18, 2016

Russia insisted on closing Lapland borders for third country citizens

Norwegian and EU citizens can no longer enter or leave Russia at Raja-Jooseppi and Salla.
April 12, 2016

Higher iron-ore price increases chances to reopen Kirkenes mine

Up 25 percent 1Q 2016 makes Felix Tschudi more optimistic on a possible reopening of Sydvaranger Gruve.
April 07, 2016

Two Norwegians expelled after lecturing on Human Rights for journalist students

Russian migration service claims Lillian Hjorth and Marit Langmyr from the Human Rights Academy in Oslo had wrong visa.
April 06, 2016

Lapland border restriction causes problems for Barents cooperation

Foreign businessmen, journalists and researchers, like the participants in the Calotte Academy, have to drive an extra seven and a half hour detour after Russia and Finland agreed to close Lapland borders for third country citizens.
April 06, 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