Thomas Nilsen

Yamal Airlines launches direct flight from Apatity to Crimea

Weekly flights to Simferopol with an Airbus A320 starts on June 7th.
April 05, 2016

87 nuclear warheads more today than in September

Russia has 185 strategic warheads more than limited by the New START agreement. That is nearly the number on-board the Northern fleet’s two Borei-class submarines.
April 04, 2016

Storskog border traffic down 13 percent

Chief of Police at Norway's border checkpoint to Russia, Stein Kristian Hansen, counts less travellers than last year, but there are still many more than before visa-freedom was introduced in the Norwegian-Russian border area.
April 04, 2016

Russia develops new nuclear battery for remote Arctic

“What the world doesn’t need right now are more remotely located radioactive sources that could be stolen by terrorists and used in dirty-bombs,” says Nuclear Physicist Nils Bøhmer.
March 31, 2016

Spy ship changes name and continues intelligence mission

Norway has decided to convert old “Marjata” for maritime surveillance as NATO claims Russian submarine activities equals Cold War levels. A new giant spy-vessel is soon ready for maiden voyage to the Barents Sea.
March 30, 2016

Lufthansa brings more skiers to Lapland

Direct flights to Kittilä from both Munich and Dusseldorf next winter season.
March 30, 2016

Finnair denied route to Longyearbyen

All flights this summer cancelled, but renegotiation of aviation agreement with Norway might come.
March 30, 2016

Murmansk to become hub for Arctic cruise tourism

Russia’s Federal Agency for tourism says it will do everything possible to open restricted Arctic border zone areas for tourists.
March 30, 2016

Dramatic warm winter leaves record low sea ice extent

Influx of warm Atlantic waters from the Norwegian Sea and warm winds from the south to the Kara and Barents Sea have forced the ice edge northward.
March 29, 2016

High levels of dioxin and heavy metals in reindeer liver

Rosselkhoznadzor, Russia’s Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance says levels in reindeers from Murmansk and Nenets exceeds permitted levels.
March 28, 2016

Pages

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